Rockman Ga Taosenai
by GrimMoody
Summary: Everyone told Mega Man that he was the invincible robot. This last adventure in my Mega Man quintology tests everything the blue bomber knew about himself and his friends. With hard work and a lot of luck, they can save the future from the reploid wars. That is, if Proto Man can keep his darkest secret from his brother.
1. Mighty Mega Man

I don't own Mega Man. Wah.

-t-

Mega Man had a lot on his plate. He had to keep the laboratory going, which surprisingly took more than Auto just working tirelessly at experimentations and construction of goods. Light Laboratories employed thousands of people and robots across the world. As it was for most of the past year, regional managers and executives ran the factories. They had been slowly taking more control ever since Dr. Light became more sickly. Now that he was gone, the CEO of most of Light Laboratories' economic side was Dr. Kenneth Imahara, a distant in-law of Dr. Light's that also had interest in robotics.

The blue bomber sighed and pulled more of the papers closer for a better look. It was a good thing that robots didn't need sleep; even despite the wider spread of control Rock found himself shuffling through financial and legal documents, sorting out budgeting and copyright. Mega Man didn't mind this work. There was a lot of it, but it was comfortable tedium, a nice distraction from fighting all the time. Auto still had to keep his shop in town going, so that meant Mega Man was going to have to deal with economics.

Mega Man glanced around the room once, sighing again. No, it wasn't the work that bothered him. This room had once been Dr. Light's office, more or less. In life, the good doctor had always referred to it as "the library", as it held scattered documents, maps, and blueprints filed in an ecclectic (messy) manner in all of the bookcases and racks that lined the bare walls. No one knew why Dr. Light kept it the way he did, only that it was in an order only he had understood. Any rearranging had brought immediate protests.

No, it wasn't the room that bothered him either. His eyes darted to the source of his concern: Roll. To look at her, no one would see a troubled girl. They would only see the cute Japanese-ish, American-ish robot that was rather contentedly pulling out Dr. Light's old documents and trying to organize them in a way that ordinary people would understand. Her assistant robot, the green spider mechaniloid Dub, reached out his eight arms to bring her the highest documents out of her reach. Roll cheerfully explained to him the significance of whatever paper was pulled, asking him to put it in whichever pile on the floor was appropriate. The robot listened - Rock was never sure how much it understood - and affirmed Roll's words with a computerish squeal or plunk.

Her brother had to smile. Roll could just tell Dub some order of how to set the files and have him do it all, but to her this was a labor of love. It had been three months since Dr. Light passed, and even since then Roll had a difficult time transitioning. She tried her hardest to be happy, but there always seemed to be something missing from her smiles. Mega Man saw it no matter how much his sister would bury it under cheer or work. Her now geniune merriness came from organizing the files, doing it as is for Dr. Light.

She glanced up at her brother from her seat on the floor. Even as he pretended to look down, Roll knew that he had been staring.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, nothing." Mega Man sheepishly said. "Don't let me bother you."

Roll knew it was a lie. She teasingly frowned at him, pretending to be stern as she put her hands on her hips. "Don't you have a patrol or something to do? You're getting in my way. Shoo! Go on now!"

"I have to get this work done sometime." Mega lifted several documents to prove his point.

"Bah, get going. You can do it in the lab." Roll playfully turned to her assistant. "Dub, escort Mr. Mega Man out!"

The spider-loid reached out two of its long arms, and whatever else it understood, it knew what teasing meant. The two claws reached out and started to bonk Rock on the head more or less gently, as two more metal limbs stretched out and started to tug at Mega Man's arm. Ducking under the play onslaught, the bomber made his way to the door, pretending he was going to kick over one of the stacks of paper as he passed. But he left all the same, turning once more to stick out his tongue at his sister, who promptly stuck out hers in reply.

With that, the door was shut and Rock was excluded. He had to smile though. It was nice to see Roll genuinely cheerful. She worked so hard at making herself look happy, but this was as close as Roll was to her normal self since before Dr. Light's last few months of life.

The library was only a little ways down the hall from the main laboratory, so Rock decided to go there. Bearing a few of the more important papers, Mega Man entered the lab and settled down at one of the repair tables closest to the door. As much as the table was designed to hold the body of a robot and not be convenient to work at, he liked it. The width of the table made it easy to see all the documents he had to work on at once. Again, he was glad to be a robot. It was so much faster to get through everything he had to work on.

That didn't mean he concentrated on his work. Auto was buzzing about the lab, merrily gathering supplies for his robot supply shop in the middle of Monstropolis. He was working on a new energy converter for robots with specialized weapons, and if it worked he would be in for a lot more profit. Not that Auto was money-minded, but he had to keep his shop running. It was, after all, the main source of income for the home. Saving the world didn't pay as much as most people thought.

Mega Man found himself jealous of Auto. Long ago, he too had been a lab tech, assistant to Dr. Light. Those had been some of the happiest years of his life, and his original directive had been to support the new inventions that Dr. Light created. He was responsible for a lot of the construction of the first robot masters. Making robots was such fun, and yet he so rarely got to do it these days. He had defeated Wily so many times that people always thought of him as someone that fought crime. Mega Man never fought crime for fun, but to protect people. Every time that the governor wanted help in finding someone or stopping rampaging robots, he dialed the number to the lab. Mega Man never could say no.

"La la la..." Auto hummed an old Japanese song to himself. He was in a very good mood. "Oh, hi Rock! Getting a lot of work done on those papers?"

Mega Man started. He had barely even given them a look since spreading them out on the repair table. Embarrassed, he reached a hand through his locks with a sheepish grin.

"Uh, well, not as much as I wanted to." he admitted. "It's coming along."

"Make sure you file those patents for me!" Auto cheerfully stuffed a box of screws into a crate to bring to the store. "I've got to help Eddie get our new power pellet display set up. Hopefully I'll be back in time to get some work done on the Proto Man's Christmas present before the day is out!"

It was only April, but this sort of present took a long time to build. Mega Man smiled. The Proto Jet had been a replacement for the dog-bots that he and Bass used. Proto Man wasn't an animal person, so he instead got a fighter jet type aircraft, one that could do vertical take-offs and landings. It had actually been Crystal Bot's idea, as she somehow got it into her head that Proto Man never came to the Lights' Christmas party the year before because no one had presents for him (how Mega Man wished that it was that simple). Before she and Bass returned to Russia, her and Auto had started putting it together.

Now that the girl tech-bot was gone, Auto took it upon himself to finish its design. The design was more or less his, as he knew more what Proto Man liked as far as design asthetics went. Not a day went by that he didn't work on the gift, even though it was nearing completion. Even as close as he was, Auto always found something that needed doing or even re-doing. In fact, he was already considering a second coat of paint.

"Come on, you've got to be finished by now." Rock said. "You're always working on it."

"I know. It just seems like each day some better technology comes out and I have to install it!"

Auto snapped a lid onto the crate and began carefully pushing nails into it. Auto was essentialy one large tool, and if he couldn't use his hands for a job, then surely the appropriate device for the job was tucked under his armor. Despite the girth that this gave the repair-bot, Mega Man still felt jealous. It would be nice to stop fighting for once and actually be able to work on the job he was created for.

_Of course, most of the serious fighting is done. _Mega Man thought._ Dr. Wily had managed to stay in jail for three more months since his last escape. Maybe he'll stay there this time...ugh, yeah right. If he actually stays in jail this time then I'm a flying robot pig._

Auto lifted the crate he packed to his shoulder, and the noise brought Mega Man out of his thoughts. "Hey, it's getting towards eight o'clock. Isn't it time for you to go to patrol?"

"Yes, I know." Mega Man said. "Tell Roll I'll meet her at six."

"I wish I was going to the Cossacks' party, but I just have so much to do!." Auto said. "Have fun getting fit for your tux!"

"Gah, I wish you were going too. I hate shopping for clothes." Mega Man dramatically flopped his arms down on the table with a sigh. "Oh well. At least that will be the worst part of it. I haven't seen Dr. Cossack in a while. I hope Bass found what Dr. Wily was planning out there. It would be horrible if something happened to the Cossacks."

"You'll have to check it out while you're up there, then."

"I sure will!"

Mega Man stood up, converting his right hand into a buster. He always swore up and down that he wanted to be a lab tech again, but every time he heard of threats, he felt his heart soar. The thought of a threat being there without him to stop it was nonsensical to him. He wanted to be there facing it down so that other people didn't have to. As long as electricity flowed through his wires, Mega Man wanted nothing more than to keep people from being afraid. Life was meant for fun and invention, not for fighting and tyranny. And he wanted to make sure it stayed that way. This was what brought him joy.

No matter how much he wanted something else for himself.

Mega Man teleported out, signalling for Rush to follow. They would start at Kauffman Tower and make a full circle over the city. From there they would recieve signals from the police and the results of various scans. Any crisis would prompt an immediate teleport to the area in question. Monstropolis was big, but not so big that Mega Man's teleportation couldn't go from one side to the other in more than five seconds.

So, like normal they teleported out. It wasn't but a minute before Mega Man was flying on Rush jet, cruising the city as was his wont. The air whooshed by much as it always did, the sound of it drowning out his auditory recievers. That wasn't a problem, as he could always hear with his radio function. He slowed down nonetheless so that he could get a better look at the tall buildings and busy streets below. From up there things looked so peaceful, and that meant things were. Mega Man's many years of stewardship made his eyes alert to even the slightest danger. People were likewise used to him saving the day, so crimes occured less often.

_Less violent ones, anyway._ Mega Man reminded himself. _I never was that good at figuring out economic crime._

Some violations of the law just had to be dealt with by humans. Countless people had told Mega Man that just seeing him being a kind and pure hero made them want to be more honest in their lives, but he had no way of knowing if this was true in practice or not. But Rock just smiled, letting himself think it was true. He hoped that he was a good influence to Monstropolis.

All this thought didn't stop him from keeping his firm gaze on Monstropolis below. They caught sight of a blue van just outside of a tall building - not quite a skyscraper - the bottom floor of which Rock knew to be a bank. Ordinarily this would mean nothing, but he knew the bright flames of Burner Man when he saw them. It was time to get his feet back on the earth.

"Let's go, Rush!"

"RRR...WOOF!"

As Mega Man neared, he caught sight of other robots with Burner Man. Magnet Man ran alongside him into the monetary facility, followed along by Pump Man and Burst Man, who faced back out into the street. They surely knew that any minute Mega Man would be there. They had to anticipate him. In fact, both of the rear robots kept fresh eyes out for this inevitability.

"There he is!" Pump Man pointed as Rush neared the sidewalk and allowed Mega Man to jump off. "Get him!"

Pump Man's water shield wasn't up in time for him to block the charged shot that knocked him backwards into Burst Man. Their two companions dodged inside the bank as the water-bot and the bubble-bot hastily got up and readied themselves to face the blue bomber. A half charged shot tore a gap into Pump Man's latest shield, but Burst Man wasn't going to be stopped so easily.

"Eat bombs, blue guy!" Burst Man yelled out. "Whooo yeah! That's the ticket!"

Three bubbles bearing explosive ordinance flew towards Mega Man. The first he could dodge by jumping, but just as he was about to land a little away from the second one, Pump Man pulled off his pump handle and flung it out. All three bombs were hit, and Mega Man fell sideways, smacking into the building.

"Alright! Great job, Pump Man!"

"It's a 'great job' when he's dead, Burst Man!" Pump Man caught his handle as it boomeranged back to him. "Just focus and keep fighting."

"Come on, you need to just enjoy the ride!" Burst Man blew and extra big bubble at Mega Man. "Life's a journey on the surfboard of sunshine!"

Mega Man unleashed a barrage of plasma pellets as he fired off shots at the bubble headed his way. "Quick, Rush! You go inside and see what's going on in there!"

The red dog barked, dodging as Pump Man scattered the pellets of his water shield. That was his last attack, as one moment later Mega Man fired off the final shots that killed the team 10 robot master. However, the team 7 one was still fighting back, and Mega Man was going to have to be careful if he didn't want to be trapped in a bubble.

Inside the bank the mischief began with screaming as the patrons of the rather grand bank scattered across the burgundy carpet to get as far away from the Wily-bots as they could. It was almost comedic to see the people knock down the velvet ropes that formed the line to the tellers, or scramble to the right and dash inside an office in the hopes that the Wily-bots would find whatever they wanted elsewhere. Those on the left could do nothing but hide behind the plush sofas and chairs that made up a waiting area.

None could really blame them for being afraid. To see a picture of or hear a story about Burner Man was one thing, but to have to face this guy in the (metal) flesh was truly terrifying. Magnet Man simply couldn't compare, and he jealously shot a few magnets in the air just to make himself feel intimidating. But no, the frightened eyes of the bank patrons seemed completely focused on Burner Man, who started to speak in a careful and very calm voice, if tainted with some hissing.

"Hi everyone! This is a stickup, so don't go anywhere. So then," Burner Man cleared his throat. "GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONAAAAH!"

As he magnificently screamed his demand, people scattered in all directions from the flames shooting out of his body. Magnet Man snatched up one banker, but all the rest of the humans started running for the door in the back that was their only escape - they didn't dare hope to get out past Burst Man, who was still shooting bombs outside.

"No, no, everyone!" Burner Man called out.

Burner Man dashed past the bank tellers' counter, breaking the little wooden gate as he did so, and he immediately shoved a six foot man to the floor. He showed his mad grin to the rest of the humans as he warned them.

"I _said, _this is a stickup! You're all hostages!"

With that, Burner Man directed his propane buster to the door. Unfortunately (for him), nothing much happened.

"A metal door? I HATE METAL DOORS! ARRRRGGGHH!"

More flames shot out, and the people scattered away, ducking on the floor for fear of retribution. The man Burner Man had knocked down earlier had to roll away and crawl as fast as he could in the teller area (where he froze when he realized he was caught between Burner and Magnet Man). Fortunately for all the nearest people, the door remained the target of the Wily-bot's fury, and he shot his flames at it rather than anyone. This, however, produced something interesting for Burner Man: the flames that hit the door melted it completely shut.

"Ooooh, that's nice." Happy that this was settled, Burner Man turned around. "Hey, I'm not seeing any money!"

Instantly cash, change, and bank envelopes flew towards Burner Man, who stood there laughing brilliantly with his hands on his hips.

"I feel like a king! A king...of FIRE! MAGNET MAN, bring me a BANKER!"

Magnet Man shoved his prisoner, a young blonde of about twenty-five years of age, over towards the propane-bot. Burner Man laughed a haughty laugh, and he snatched up the girl by the arm, pulling her nice and close. She began to whimper, sweating from the heat of the robot master.

"Hey babe." Burner Man spoke quickly. "How about you open that vault and I don't set you on fire, mm'kay?"

"Uh...okay!"

The blonde hurried to the vault he pointed to, fumbling with the keys. She waved a Hispanic woman over to help, and the two started working on the door as if there was no tomorrow. Burner Man was starting to get impatient, tapping his foot on the floor. He growled at the women at the vault, and they screamed, working ever the more violently.

Magnet Man wasn't unaware of his friend's impatience. If Burner Man didn't get some sort of distraction to keep him from just burning everything down, then the whole plan would be ruined. Magnet Man stepped over the aforementioned human man as he headed towards Burner Man. He glanced down just in time to see Rush charge out and chomp ferociously onto his leg. Shooting magnets at the dog hurt it, but still Rush kept his toothy grip.

"Hey, Burner Man! Get this dog off of me!"

"Something to burn! Oh the joy!"

The propane fueled flames shot out, not only hitting Rush but also Magnet Man. The dog finally let go, whimpering and dashing behind Magnet Man. That left him to bear the full impact of the roasting fire (and Burner Man didn't seem to notice that he was burning the wrong robot).

"Gah! You idiot!" Magnet Man jumped back from the fire. "You weren't supposed to hit me, hit...hit Mega Man!"

"He's here?"

Burner Man asked this just as Burst Man blew up in an explosion worthy of his name. All that remained was the blue bomber, and he was quick to enter the bank. His buster was ready and his face was confident, even despite the fact that Burner Man was definitely one of his least favorite enemies.

"He's here! I HATE MEGA MAN. But I love burning him. I'M SO CONFLICTED!"

"You have the emotion of an anime character." Mega Man said, his body beginning to glow as he charged his weapon. "Look, just leave these people alone!"

There was no need to say anything to spur him on. The only person Burner Man cared about right at that moment was Mega Man, and he would be even happier to make Mega Man into ash. However, even in America dreams don't always come true. Burner Man's ended with his foolish collision into Mega Man's freshly gained water shield, direct from Pump Man's power chip. The eight particles of water doused Burner Man, and the stench of free propane filled the air.

"Not fair!"

"Hey, you're the one that brought along a water robot!"

Pump Man's power took down Burner Man quickly, and Mega Man made sure to lead Burner Man away from the door as the fight progressed so that the humans could run away (they ran like crazy. He didn't forget about Magnet Man, though. How could he? Just as Burner Man converted into junk, Mega Man felt himself drifting towards the teller counter. This effect suddenly stopped, and Magnet Man shot out his magnets, jumping into the air before Mega Man could recover and get in a shot.

"Gotta go, Rock! See you later!"

_**WHA-BLAMM!**_

"Whooo-hooo!" Napalm Man cheered from the fresh new holes he had made in the front of the bank. "Even after all this time of not getting to blow anything up, I shot and I got Magnet Man right in the face!"

Indeed he had. The burning napalm sank under Magnet Man's armor, burning his electronics quickly away. However, napalm, being a liquid, is not a precise thing. As the evil robot burned, so did about half the carpet. It started spreading to the left, setting a rather lovely green sofa on fire first.

"Napalm Man!" Mega Man exclaimed, re-equipping his water shield ability. "Napalm sets things on fire! I'm almost out of water shield too!"

"Um...sorry?"

"Call the fire department and make sure everyone on the higher floors evacuates!"

"Right, right!"

Off went the over eager and itchy-fingered Napalm Man. It was harder for him being a good guy than it was the other Team 5 robots, especially since his expertise was in fighting and not something that was more useful on Team 5's isolated space station. The bomber sighed as he used up the last of his power to soak the carpet around the fire with water so that it wouldn't spread. He also sent out a signal to the robotics store. Thankfully it didn't take long for Eddie to teleport down and toss a weapon energy Rock's way.

"Thanks, Eddie!" Despite trying to put out the fire, Mega Man managed a nod and a somewhat merry joke. "Tell Auto to put it on my tab."

"No problem!" the happy little treasure chest with feet chirped. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, have Auto come here when he gets a chance and get Burst, Pump, and Burner Man back to the lab. I don't think there'll be anything left from Magnet Man's CPU to look at."

"Will do!"

Eddie teleported out. Napalm Man must have done as he was told, because that was when the firemen came. Five humans rushed in, bearing chemical flame retardant and a fire hose. Mega Man had the fire somewhat contained, but napalm wasn't easily put out. Mega Man let the humans in their yellow coats douse it properly.

"Thanks, you guys!" Rock exclaimed. _Ah, despite both Burner and Napalm Man, everything's under control! I'm just glad Napalm Man came here after Burner Man was destroyed..._

Mega Man shuddered at the thought. There was nothing left for him to do but leave the place and get out of the way, but Rush was barking at him. Dodging the crowding firemen, the blue bomber went over to the teller's counter and jumped over it. Rush was waiting there, his nose wriggling at one of the computers a teller normally worked at. Mega Man pushed a button on the disc drive, as Rush indicated, and out came a small, blue disc.

"Huh, I wonder what this is..."

The dog barked a few times, pointing out that Magnet Man hadn't been using his power to fight anyone when he activated his magnetic field. The significance of this ocurred to Mega Man at once. Magnetic waves could wipe out computers, and Magnet Man had done it before.

"Hey Rock, sorry about the fire!"

Mega Man looked up to see a newly returned Napalm Man on the other side of the counter. He also saw that the fire was nearly out, and the firemen were busily making sure that any ashes from the carpet and couches were cold. Besides the napalm fire, the only damage to the place was the melted door and scorch marks from where Burner Man had stood. The building would definitely not collapse. Mega relaxed a little.

"It's okay, Napalm Man. I know you were just trying to help. But uh, next time you shouldn't use your napalm bombs. You've got those torpedos."

"Yeah, you would know!" the purple ammo-bot laughed, slapping Mega Man on the back in a friendly manner. "I've shot you enough times! So, what do you think they were doing here?"

"Rush tells me that Burner Man called all this a 'stickup'. They were trying to open the vault, but I stopped them. It's weird though, because I found this disc in the computer." Mega Man lifted it for the Team 5 bot to see. "But I don't know what it is. Magnet Man must have done something to the bank's network and then destroyed the evidence of it. I get the feeling that this fight was all just a big distraction for something else. He was probably trying to send the money to a different bank account rather than take anything physically from this bank."

Mega Man didn't want to make Napalm Man feel bad by telling him that killing Magnet Man as roughly as he had kept them from finding out where exactly the money had gone. So he just let the robot go on.

"So, you're saying that there's going to be more stuff to shoot? I'll be ready!"

For good measure, Napalm Man lifted his busters into the air in celebration. Despite not having a face, his eyes held all the smiles that Napalm Man would ever need.

"Don't fire those!" Mega Man said quickly. "Um, hey, Auto will be here in a minute, so why don't you convert your launchers into your normal hands again and help him bring these guys to the lab for investigation? After that you'll need to contact Team 5 and tell them what's going on. I know you're supposed to cover me while I'm in Russia, but I have a feeling I'm going to need your help as soon as possible."

Lowering his launchers, Napalm Man obediently converted them back into his hands. The very idea of having an important duty was wonderful to Napalm Man. In his heart of hearts he knew he missed Dr. Wily, but he liked working with Mega Man a lot better. Mega Man always knew how to say things just the way that made sense to him.

"Alright! Napalm Man is on the job!"

Mega Man just smiled, letting it hide his anxiety. Just once he wanted the day to stay saved, but if he knew Dr. Wily then something big was about to happen.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Okay, here we go in the final story in the madness that is my fanfiction requiem. The concept behind this story is a concept I've subconciously wanted to address in any of my fanfictions (or thoughts of potential fanfictions) so I figure if I get it out of the way now, I'll be able to focus more on stuff I actually want to publish. This is the story that I shall do whatever I want, unchecked! You can't stop me! BWAHAHAHAHA!

- The Eddie shaped store that Auto ran in MM7 is the one I'm referring to in this chapter. It's open to the public, though not all of the items he sells are available to all robots legally.

Since I hate people having to go back and read the whole dang series just to understand what's going on now, here's a summary.

**For those who are starting to read now:**

- Crystal Bot was created by Crystal Man to replace him as a technical aide to Dr. Wily and upgrade the Team 5 (Mega Man 5) robots. Wily got mad and destroyed Crystal Man's CPU to get revenge.

- Team 5 (Napalm, Wave, Gravity, Charge, Star, Stone, and Gyro Man) are all now living on Star Man's space station as good guys, because in helping Crystal Bot they made an enemy out of Wily. They all have upgrades that Crystal Man left them, so they're not as wimpy or wonky as they were during MM5.

- Bass left Wily after Wily attempted to kill him, taking Crystal Bot as his technician. Mega Man saved his life and Dr. Light inspired him, so now he's trying to be a good guy. He wants to prove himself by killing Zero before Mega Man finds out about this robot. Mega Man doesn't know Zero exists.

- Another mad scientist known as Dr. Cain made eight robot masters and one robot assistant (Epic, Algorhythm, Psycho, Emit, Signal, Sight, Bullet, and Echelon Man, and his assistant is Demi) that Bass and Mega Man defeated. Cain is now in prison.

- Dr. Wily was betrayed by Bass and sent to jail. He escaped by faking his death, but was caught again after trying to force Dr. Cain to work for him, and is there now still.

- Dr. Light, after serving as a mentor to Bass, died. His mind exists in a computer and is now testing Mega Man X for thirty years. He is effectively cut off from the world.  
- Proto Man's power core was repaired using information left behind by Dr. Light. He has a lot of dark secrets.

- Mega Man has remained relatively unchanged, but he constantly worries how he is going to continue to save the world and keep his home in order without Dr. Light's help.

We had a little time change, so many things that happened in the story before get erased. I encourage newcomers not to worry about this next section. So...

**For those who have been keeping up to remember:**

- Mega Man, Bass, and Proto Man did not defeat Team 2 and the Cain-bots in a giant rematch fight.

- Dr. Wily is not dead. Neither is anyone who died in the robot apocalypse.

- Proto Man did not explain to Crystal Bot why being a bad guy is wrong.

- Kalinka is still going to university and has not married Alyosha Polovstiansky.

- Bass is still legally going through probation and is not too well trusted by the authorities. He has not destroyed Zero or the Zero decoy.

- Roll is the only one who remembers the alternate timeline, including the robot apocalypse and the X series.

Character profiles!

=====Burst Man

**"This is my passion."**

Good Point: Optimistic  
Bad Point: Happy-go-lucky  
Like: Nightlong binge  
Dislike: Steady efforts

Now, I don't really feel any particular attachment to MM7 robots, but I need to give them some screentime. They're pretty cool. Burst Man always threw me off when I would watch playthroughs, because he looks like a rook piece from chess. Actually, all the MM7 robot masters (other than Shade Man) have a very strange, almost tacky appearance. I know that Junk Man was the only one built out of spare parts, but it looks like seven out of the eight were also. It's not a big deal, but it was strange. So I made a plot point out of it in my head.

Burst Man is one of several robots built by Wily during the MM6 period. Team 6 wasn't built by Wily, so he had time to work on more of his own projects. Most of this time went to making Bass, but he had to build others so that when he took over the world with the Team 6 scheme, he would have servants made by his own hands to rule it (dream big, Wily, dream big...). He was running out of money faster than he realized while making Bass (bassnium added extra cost to the project) so he threw together some ideas and supplies for Team 7. He was only able to finish four of his robot masters before being caught at the end of MM6. One of these was Burst Man.

Burst Man is a happy robot, one that loves a good time and having fun with others. He often takes up a project and works hard on it, but then drops it when he gets bored. Most of this pertains to his bubble art (does anyone remember that from school?) and learning to surf or build sand castles. He always looks on the sunny side of life, and he appreciates Wily for giving him such fun and playful powers. From his defeat in MM7 until the events of Okkusenman, he spent the entire time in the robot museum. Once Mega Man destroyed the last Skull Castle in Okku, Burst Man spent his time enjoying the beach and looking for his team alternatively, as much as his short attention span would allow.

=====Burner Man

**"I'm burning with youthful fire!"**

Good Point: Faithful  
Bad Point: Jealous  
Like: Global warming  
Dislike: Self destruction

Burner Man is actually one of Dr. Wily's favorite robots. He was built by a frustrated Wily during the events of MM7 (most of the MM8 and MM&B robot masters were planned and begun at that time), and Wily ended up experimenting with propane tanks more or less to see what would happen. He was very pleased with the result, though it took him a while to figure out how to work out the kinks and he wasn't done in time for MM8. Burner Man's a very simplistic robot, and his firey worldview makes him...interesting to talk to.

While Dr. Wily had been behind the scheme to get King to kill Mega Man and Bass, what he didn't reckon on was King betraying him and stealing his robots to "liberate robots the whole world over". Once the MM&B robots were defeated, Dr. Wily let most of them stay dead, as he didn't have any need for traitorous robots. He made an exception for Burner Man because Burner Man is pretty much insane and was manipulated rather than convinced to join King (Burner Man was very disappointed to find out that he didn't have to burn down all the world's trees). Also, he gave Mega Man a lot of trouble, and Dr. Wily definitely liked that. He and Pirate Man were put in Team 8 to replace Tengu and Astro Man, but not without adding several new failsafes to keep Burner Man from betraying him again, even unintentionally.

Since then, Burner Man has done a lot of defending of Skull Castle, as well as powering the heat. Months before MM9, he was caught and put in the robot museum. After the scattering of the robot masters in Okku, he wandered around the world causing mischief.


	2. Operation Happy Snow Fun

Bass was nearly done with his trek back to Dr. Cossack's lab, but it was slow going having to tromp through the ever present snow (hurry, spring!). This made him even more grumpy; delays of any kind tried his patience. Going to Monstropolis for Dr. Light's funeral had taken up more time than Bass would have liked, but he wasn't going to complain about it. Dr. Light had been his mentor, and going to the funeral was the least he could do for the man he so desperately wished had put him together. That still didn't diminish Bass' eagerness to find his enemy and be done with his quest once and for all.

_Zero..._ He clenched his teeth, wanting to spit. _I'll kill that bastard even if it kills me...he is NOT going to do whatever the crap Wily wants him to do. He's going to die like the ugly chick that he is..._

Thinking of his younger "brother" only worsened his mood, and he didn't feel like dwelling on Zero. Another delay, this one shorter and much less worth it (to Bass) was going to be that night. It was Kalinka's "royal ball", something she had planned for all the most wealthy and powerful families in the Russian science community. Forte hardly cared at all about Russia, but she had insisted that he be there and serve as security. Obeying Dr. Cossack was one of the rules that the law had placed on Forte once he had chosen to become a good guy. While most of the time Bass did as he liked and Cossack didn't seem to mind, this was one of those things that Dr. Cossack was not going to just let pass by. His daughter's happiness was at stake, and Bass was just going to have to deal with it. Sometimes Bass didn't think Dr. Cossack realized what a threat like Zero exactly was.

_Kalinka's spoiled rotten. I have to waste even more time on this crap...I can't believe it. I'm getting closer to finding him, I just know it..._

But for now, Treble would take his place and search the snow drifts alone. Bass knew Treble could handle it, and Kalinka didn't seem to want Treble at the ball anyway. Dogs were not proper security, in her mind at least. And that was why Bass was stomping his way through snow drifts and ice. Dr. Cossack had recently expanded the range of his anti-teleportation field constructs, so that meant teleporting straight through to the lab wouldn't work until Crystal Bot could get him the proper teleport codes. And he couldn't get them until he had reached the lab. Yay for hiking.

Bass just tugged his brown cloak more tightly around his shoulders and went on, starting on the hill that would lead upwards to Cossack's lab. It wasn't worth complaining about. As much as he didn't want to be a security guard, it was about time for him to get a decent tune-up. Months of searching for Zero had taken their toll on his armor and joints, which was why he was now sporting an old cloak that was stored away in one of Cossack's lab's back rooms. He had to keep excess ice from messing with his joints before he could get them back into shape. Forte gruffly mused that Cossack's lab must have once been a haunted house before it was a lab.

_Hell, it's one now with all those stinking mummiras and crap running around. Not to mention Skull Man._

Skull Man was the most tolerable of the Cossack-bots, to him at least. He was at least a decent fighter, and it was entertaining to watch him frighten Crystal Bot. Any mention of death or a death-related something sent the girl-bot into frightened tremors. Bass snorted with a short laugh. It was humorous to watch. Another warm, cheering thought was robot master head he had tucked into the cloak, Cut Man's. He was getting closer than ever. He would find out what secrets Cut Man had on it once he reached the lab, but for now it was the uphill foot-battle back to Cossack's.

"Eeeeeeeeeeee! Heheehee!"

The squealing giggles were quiet at first, but it didn't take long for Bass to notice that his shiny technician was headed down the steep hill, sledding on something he couldn't see. It was sort of bowl shaped, though. Bass grinned, lifting a foot. She was going to pass him by, and if he timed it just right...

_**STOMP!**_

The impact of Forte's foot against the very front of the sled-thing was timed marvelously, and since there was nothing for the girl to hang on to, she flipped completely out of the impropmtu sled and cruised through the icy air, landing head-first into a pile of snow. Smirking, Bass picked up the object to find that it wasn't a sled at all. It was Proto Man's iconic shield.

"Eee! Eheheheee!"

Unfortunately, the squeaky giggling did not stop even when she pulled herself out of the cold stuff. Crystal ran her fingers through her auburn hair and flicked out the snow as she got back on her feet.

"Ha, that was fun!" Crystal cheered. "Do that again!"

Bass rolled his eyes. "What are you doing with the Proto Shield anyway?"

"Oh, that?" Crystal said with perfect innocence, holding her arms behind her back like a child. "Why, I was just being my nice friendly self and proving to Proto Man that he really does need to get some upgrades! You know how nice I am to offer! If I can snatch his shield, then who else can? Don't you think he needs to be stronger?"

Bass guffawed at Crystal Bot's mischevious wink. It was a little funny. "You know he's going to find a way to get back at you for this, right?"

"Hey, that's where you come in and rescue me. I mean, hey, we're such nice people now that we're good guys, Forte-kun. Aren't we? Don't you wanna help Proto Man by making him get some nice upgrades? He'd never choose to get them on his own if we don't prove he should! He's so stubborn!"

Bass glanced up in the direction of Dr. Cossack's lab. The red and grey robot was coming down towards them, and he didn't look happy. Crystal covered her face, trying as hard as she could to stifle her laughter. They assumed that Proto Man glared at her through his visor before he turned his head to Bass. The dark robot guessed that Proto Man thought he would just give it up.

"You know what?" Bass' perfect teeth gleamed that bright winter day. "I think that I'm feeling like a nice person right about now. Sure I'll..._help_."

With that, Bass tugged off the cloak and wrapped it around Cut Man's head, throwing it at his technician. Then he dropped the shield back on the ground and promptly jumped on top of it, cruising down the hill like a skilled snowboarder as Sonata only giggled all the worse. It quieted with distance, and the wind rushing past Bass' auditory sensors helped drown her out.

The dark robot's evil smirk grew even larger. Aggravating Proto Man aside, the whole snowboarding thing was a lot of fun. Something about the rush of it and the careful work of staying on made Bass feel alive. The Proto Shield by no means was meant for a snowboard, so it even surprised Bass how good he was at steering it past rock and tree without too much trouble.

_Heh, there's Proto Moron. I guess he has the teleport codes..._

Indeed, the original robot had teleported ahead, waiting for him to come into range, buster ready. Bass strained his cheeks from all the smiling he was doing. Crouching down, he sent himself down the vast slope at an even greater speed. Coming right up on Proto Man, he turned hard right and sprayed Blues with a vast drift of frosty snow before he gleefuly continued his ride.

Proto Man wasn't a fool. Recovering quickly and doing some risky calculations, he let Bass go on for a little longer. The dark robot was heading for a flat rock that lay at just the right angle for a ramp, and like expected he jumped full on into the air. However, he wasn't expecting Proto Man to be there at the bottom. Even as old as the Light-bot was, shooting hot plasma was as good a means as any for getting Bass off his shield. Proto Man blew at his equipped, steaming buster like a cowboy would his gun, enjoying the sight of Bass sprawled out in a pit of black rocks and snow. He went to go pick up his shield.

"Ow." Bass picked himself up off the rocks, a little miffed about the new dents in his armor. That still did little to temper his overall very glorious mood, and he even let Proto Man take his shield back without shooting at him. "Heh, that was fun."

Proto Man only glared back at him, replacing the shield to it's proper place on his arm. "You and your sidekick need to respect other people's property."

"Hey, I didn't tell her to take it from you." Bass folded his arms, completely smug. "How exactly did she trick you into getting it, by the way?"

"I didn't trick him!"

Sliding her way down the boulder that had been Bass' ramp, Crystal Bot tried her best to get down without falling. She failed and landed sprawled out on the ground. Picking herself up again (and now covered nicely in a mess of snow), she tried once more.

"I didn't really mean to trick you, Proto-kun!" she insisted. "I really just want you to get some upgrades. You're really old and stuff and you need some new parts. You already decided to let Auto fix your power core. Can't you let me help you out too? Please? Pretty please? Pleeeaaaaasseee?"

Crystal Bot was the earnest she had ever been, but Proto Man was already decided on the matter. His only response was to deepen his frown and teleport out. Crystal Bot moaned, stomping once in indignation.

"Aw...I guess Operation Happy Snow Fun was a half failure..."

The name of the "operation" made Bass feel sick, but he tested fate and asked anyway. "What do you mean, half-failure?"

He instantly wished he hadn't asked. Slowly Sonata turned around, a gleeful, prankster light in her mischevious red eyes.

"The other half was figuring out a way to tell you that I installed Top Man grade auto-balancers in you without you getting mad at me." she said. "Gee, that sure was a lot of fun snowboarding on the Proto Shield, huh, Forte-kun?"

"TOP MAN? What are you...you can't...but..." As much as he wanted to, Bass couldn't say one word against her. She really had improved his balance. At the same time, having something from one of the lamest robot masters in existence pained the dark robot like the continuous sting of an instant death spike. "I can't...grrr...urg! NRRRN!"

"Heehee, silly Forte." she approached him, turning one finger into a zip drive. "Those balancers were the one really good thing that Top Man had. Just because they were first used in him doesn't mean they're bad. Don't let it bother you so much! Now come on, let me get you that teleport code. I have to get you all fixed up."

Still deciding if he wanted to be grateful or pissed off, Bass grumpily let her load the teleportation code into his mental storage. "Erg...whatever. We've got a while until that thing starts tonight, so your fight training starts now. I got Ring Man's report and it's obvious that an expert is going to have to step in."

Crystal pulled away her hand. "But..."

He wasn't in any mood for her whining, his tone sharpened as he changed the subject. "You have my cloak, right?"

"Yeah, I don't know why you like this nasty thing." Crystal lifted it from where it had fallen in the snow. She unwrapped mechanical head from under it. "Ooh, Cut Man's head! You must be getting close. Eee! Forte-kun the hero!"

"Heh," The flattery helped his mood a little. "Get one of those brains of yours working on it. I ran into this idiot, but he was alone and still looking for Zero. Those idiots know about Zero and if we're lucky they'll know exactly where."

They teleported back to the room that Dr. Cossack had given to Crystal Bot specifically for her work. It wasn't just for the girl-bot's sake. The only way to keep her and Bright Man from killing each other was to separate them. The room was a bit smaller than Crystal would have liked, but she loved it all the same. The place, besides being a quarter filled with an enclosed automated machine, was decorated liberally with tools and software storage on the three walls not filled with a stack of computers. These fixtures went all the way up to the complex metal rafters, which above them served as a home for Bruce and the three other pipies that Crystal Bot had since repaired for her service. They tweeted their hellos as Crystal Bot and Bass reappeared in the small lab.

Sonata waved at them, going to sit in one of two chairs next to the technician table as she plopped down and pulled out Cut Man's head. Before she could do anything, out of nowhere a roar sounded. With a hideous clank, a monstrous robot smacked into Bass, knocking him to the ground. It bit Bass and held him by the neck, shaking him violently.

"Haha!" he laughed, slapping the metal beast in the ears. "I'm glad to see you too, Treble!"

The wolf let go of his master, barking merrily with his huge tail winding back and forth. Bass roughly grabbed his neck and rubbed it, pushing the dog off as they played and rough-housed.

"By the way, Sonata, you fail the test." Bass rubbed behind Treble's ears. "I was killed by a vicious robot dog because you didn't help."

Crystal Bot rolled her eyes as she hooked up Cut Man's head to her computer. "I'm working here, Forte. I don't have time for silly games."

"I said your training started now, and I meant it. You're going to have to learn to be ready for anything." he huffed, returning his attention to his robot assistant. "Alright, Treble, you go to these coordinates and keep searching. If Sonata can get her act together, she'll send you anything important you need from Cut Man's CPU."

"Don't talk about me like that!" Crystal whined. "I'm being nice and searching this guys' head for you. You need to remember to be nice to me."

"Try not to let her bother you, boy." Bass gave his ears a final scratch. "Now get going."

"Rowf!"

The wolf teleported out, and Forte stood back up. "How long is that going to take?"

"Not too long." Crystal Bot replied, keeping her focus on the CPU. "I'm doing a search of his mind for any mention of Zero. Dr. Wily didn't like talking about him, so there's probably not a lot there. It's possible Wily left some instructions just in case he was jailed again. I'm also copying his last instructions for the past half-year."

"Alright. Let it load. We're going to need to get some training done."

That got an immediate whimper from Crystal Bot. She quickly turned away from him and started typing at the her computer, letting impossibly complex data flash across the screen. It was hard to keep her wincing expression out of Bass' sight.

"Uh, heh heh...this is more complex than it looks, Forte." she pretended to be engrossed. "I better, um, keep working!"

Bass growled. "Sonata, you're not going to get away with being a wuss for long. I can let Treble search tomorrow while you work on your unarmed combat."

"We're closer than ever to finding Zero and you're going on about this? Come on!"

"That makes it more important that you actually learn to fight for once." Bass grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the computer. "Now come on, let's go."

The door slammed open, and at the door there appeared a very wild-looking blonde. Her hair was done up in tight rollers, and an elequent green bathrobe was tossed over her shoulders. The wildest part about her, however, was the look on her face. Her eyebrows pointed dangerously downwards, and her pouting lips pointed the same way. She was hardly pleased with what she saw: two robots, dirty and still dripping from the melting snow. Her arms folded with dangerous ferocity, and her foot tapped against the ground with all the contempt Kalinka could muster.

"What is this?" Kalinka's cute accent sounded significantly less cute with sinister undertones. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, work?" Crystal Bot nervously answered, aimlessly pointing back at the computer.

"Are you kidding me? Now? There's only five hours until the party! Bass, you have a security meeting an hour before that! Stop standing around and get ready! Crystal, what are you going to be wearing?"

"This." Crystal gestured at her simple cyan dress and forest green cloak. "I mean, what else would I wear?"

Kalinka's eyes widened and her sneer deepened, and Crystal knew she had answered wrong. She couldn't help but whimper a little, backing away from the angry Cossack girl. Bass, however, ever the socially aware fellow (not), made it even worse. To his credit, all he did was smirk at his technician, when suddenly he became the next victim of Kalinka's ugly sneer.

"Someone fitted you for your tux, _right_?"

Bass jumped back in horror. "No! I've never worn human clothes in my life and I'm not going to start now!"

Kalinka's glare rather said otherwise, and she let it have its impact before speaking again. "I'm going to have one of the mummiras bring your tux, and you are going to wear it! Don't argue with me! And make sure your hair looks nice!"

Without another word, the young Cossack left with an abrupt slam of the door. Both robots looked stunned for a minute, and Crystal Bot was only marginally glad she had avoided her fight training. She nervously glanced at her boss.

"Make sure my hair looks nice?" Bass complained, throwing a hatefully expressive hand towards the door. "What the hell does that mean? I'll be wearing my helmet...won't I?"

Crystal Bot couldn't resist a giggle. "Uh...Forte-kun, why don't you head into that automated machine? I'll start a clean cycle on you while I work on Cuttie's head. I know how to fix clothes, so I'll get the tux on you somehow."

"I'm not going helmetless! What, do they think I'm going to just give in to their stupid demands because I'm some sort of good guy now? I was a dangerous villain for years! Why the hell do they think I'll go along with this crap?"

"Because it's the one thing Dr. Cossack asked you to do since you got here." His technician pushed him to the automated machine. "Go on, now. We'll talk about it later. Shoo!"

Bass grumpily shook Crystal Bot away and went off. He pushed the button on his way in, and the huge panel door slid shut behind him. Crystal Bot went ahead after him, pushing the appropriate buttons to begin the cleaning cycle. She took a glance down at her dress. She liked it, and she didn't understand why Kalinka didn't.

_Aw, I'm gonna have to get all dressed up...I don't wanna...too much work for too little result._

She realized that if Bass' hair was going to have to look good, then hers too wouldn't just be allowed to hang downward as boringly as it usually did. As a technician, she had no use for looking pretty. She gruffly wondered if Wily had programmed her to not want to doll herself up so that he wouldn't have to worry about buying her nice clothes.

Crystal Bot sighed. _At least I get to work on this guy's brain. Hmph! Team 1 meanie. Even with Toad Man disease, I'm still a better fighter than him!_

She went over to the computer and looked at the flowing data. As she read it over, she frowned. Cut Man's head was heavily encoded for some reason. It wasn't all of his head, as Wily's standard encoders were still easy for her to work around - he hadn't had much time to upgrade it before he was arrested. Despite this, somehow the past month of Cut Man's memories, and only that last month, were shut out in a completely unfamiliar way.

_Uh, well Wily did have a couple of weeks out of prison while everybody thought he was dead. I guess he could have upgraded Cut Man then..._

That was silly, though. It had been well over three months since Dr. Wily was caught from his escape attempt. This time, he seemed to be in prison for good. The guards were watching him very carefully. They had to be, after the last time he snuck his way out from behind bars.

Crystal Bot wasn't worried about it. She could decode the security measures in place, or guessed that she could. Worst come to worst, she could always just plug her own mind into Cut Man's and work on it manually. Bored for the moment, she decided to look and see what else she could find in Cut Man's head. He had been one of the oldest robots manufactured, and he was one of the robots closest to Wily. Having his head was a great way to find out any number of details about Wily and his schemes over the years. She had a thought that perhaps she should be getting ready for the party instead, but she wasn't worried about it. Secretly she hoped that Kalinka would forget about getting her a dress.

Crystal wasn't sure what memory she wanted to start with. There was just so much to look at, and she wanted to give it all a try before turning into Cut Man's head to the authorities. She was bound to record all of it to the computer later. So she just picked out a memory at random. It shocked her that the very first image she saw was an image of herself, surrounded on one side by Guts Man and Elec Man on the other.

**Crystal Bot looked up in horror. "Oh Dad, please no! I'm sorry! I'll do anything to make this up to you! Please don't, please!"**

**"Oh, you will make up for it!" Wily's evil smile seemed worse than his horrible frown. "I've been wasting you as a technician. Your next job will be **_**much more useful**_**!"**

**In shock, she allowed herself to be lifted to her feet by Elec Man and Guts Man. Without resistance she let them pull her out of the door and towards the room that contained the automated machinery. The door closed behind them. The perspective of the memory turned to Dr. Wily, and it was clear that there was a sadness in his eyes. Wily glanced toward Cut Man, and the orange and white robot jumped as he was noticed.**

**"Cut Man..." Dr. Wily said, a little wistfully. His age showed through his cracked voice. "Did you know that I had plans to make her my replacement when I am gone?"**

**"Her as the doctor? She would have liked that."**

**His voice was tinged with bitterness. "I guess I know better now." **

Crystal Bot stopped the memory. She stopped everything, standing there without word. She used to be the heiress of the greatest supervillain the world had ever known. She was going to be the Wily to live beyond what he had even planned for himself. Humans couldn't live continuously, but a robot potentially could. This realization stung her, leaving her in disquiet.

Turning to the computer, she turned on the web camera to use it like a mirror. She stared at herself, her innocent eyes and auburn hair.

"Doctor...Wily..." she said, in a little over a whisper. "I am Doctor Wily..."

She meant "Wily" as a family name, but it did seem strange to call herself that. After all, that was how Albert Wily was usually labelled. She would have to use a first name to clarify.

"Doctor Sonata Wily...the greatest villain of all time! Ew, that doesn't work."

Crystal Bot glanced over at the automated machine, still doing its best to clean up Bass. He was the one that had given her that name, and he would hardly appreciate her using that along with "Wily". Also, it was too nice sounding to be a evil scientist's moniker. Crystal's mischevious lips turned upwards. She had the perfect enemy name.

"Doctor Sinistra Wily..." she murmured, her giggles growing darker and more malevolent. "Daughter of Albert-"

She cut herself off right there, admonishing herself that she had so easily forgotten. Albert Wily was not her father. He had killed her real father, Crystal Man. At once Crystal Bot scolded herself. She was not a villain any longer, but an aide to the new hero Forte. She had abandoned her life of destruction the past year, and was now doing her best to be a good girl, as difficult as that proved to be.

It was too late. Crystal Bot had seen the memory, and now the gears in her head were in motion, thinking deeply about what could have been had she not disobeyed Dr. Wily and allowed Mega Man to live. It had been only to make sure that Bass would be the one to defeat him, but she had been caught not destroying the blue bomber when she could so easily have turned him into nothing more than a carbon-scored metal sculpture. With that one choice, Wily turned her into a mechaniloid. Only through the best of luck, the help of Bass, and secret programs in Jewel Man's mind had she been able to survive.

All the same, things could have been different. Crystal Bot could have been by Wily's side, acting like Wily's daughter and never knowing the truth about her origins and true creator. Curious, Crystal Bot picked a memory shortly after the time when Wily had fooled everyone into thinking that Dr. Light had let loose eight robot masters instead of him. That was when Wily had first discovered the little creation of Crystal Man. Crystal Bot had never understood why Wily had kept her around instead of killing her. There was no one who could tell her the truth. If Wily had only been trying to get the Mega Man X parts that were stolen for her creation, then he could have just taken the parts and let her die.

_Maybe Cut Man was there. He might know what happened._

Crystal Bot picked what seemed to be the right time, coming across a memory that piqued her interest.

**The first edition Crystal Bot wasn't even three foot tall, but that didn't stop her from proudly working on met after met, setting each of them in working order and putting them to the side for Dr. Wily's schemes. The lab was a mess of parts and shut down met mechaniloids, but the little girl-bot didn't need that much room to work. **

**"This is the last one, Uncle Cuttie!" the little thing squealed as she drove in a couple more screws into the black robot. "Yay! Daddy will be so happy!"**

**"Um, yeah...he will." the scissor-bot said with more than a little awkwardness. "You work pretty fast."**

**"Hee hee. That's cause I'm smart like Daddy!"**

**The giggly little crystal girl started to put the final pieces of the met back together, making sure the mechaniloid CPU was properly hooked in before replacing the cranial panel. All that remained was to put on the distinctive orange-yellow hat with the black stripe and plus sign. She looked at it curiously, turning it over in her hands. Then she promptly pulled her mini tiara out of her auburn locks and replaced it with the met helmet, giggling and clapping her hands. The thing was too large for her, and it covered her eyes completely.**

**The door opened, and Dr. Wily, always in a state of intensity, hurried through it with his mind absorbed by business. This track was de-railed by the mess of mets around the room, and Wily stopped. He smiled down at Crystal Bot, looking strangely enough like someone nice.**

**"Gee, I wonder where my little Crystal Bot went." he said, teasing. "All I see are a bunch of mettools."**

**Crystal Bot couldn't resist a little giggling, though she covered her mouth, trying not to say anything.**

**"Oh, this mettool is very cute right here!" A grinning Dr. Wily got down next to Crystal Bot. "I didn't know I had a mettool like this!"**

**"It's me!" The little girl-bot lifted the helmet over her eyes so that she could shine her cheeky grin at the mad scientist. "I tricked you, Daddy!"**

**Tossing away the helmet, Crystal Bot jumped up and hugged him around the neck. Albert hugged her back, then pushed her away, pretending to be strict.**

**"You weren't playing when you were supposed to be working, were you?" he warned, not at all serious.**

**"Nuh uh, Daddy! I was workin'!" the girl insisted. "You can ask Cuttie over there! I just gotta stick the last helmet on, and then I'm done! See, I'm a good girl!"**

**"You certainly are." Wily smirked. "Since you were a good girl Daddy was able to finish Commando Man today. You're being really helpful to me, sweetie, so you get a present."**

**"A present?" she gushed, jumping up and down. "Gimmie!"**

**Wily laughed. "I can't just hand it to you. It's upgrades."**

**"For my brain?"**

**"For the rest of you too. I know you're tired of being so short, so I'm going to make you taller now."**

**"And then can I go play with the robot masters?"**

**Wily nodded. "Then you may. So hurry up and put that helmet on the last mettool. The sooner you get done, the sooner you'll be tall."**

**"Yay!" The little girl-bot snatched her abandoned tiara from the floor and quickly stuck it back on her head as she started gathering up the likewise abandoned tools and helmet. "I'm gonna be big!"**

**As Crystal Bot settled down again on the floor and began finishing the work, Wily neared Cut Man, always keeping his eyes on the little robot. "Well, how has she been?"**

**"Not bad." Cut Man said, speaking so that Crystal couldn't hear him. "She complained a lot when I told her she couldn't leave this room, but she didn't actually try to leave. She sure seems to like you. I didn't think that Crystal Man could have made something like this."**

**"Hmph." Wily muttered, disliking the very mention of that rebellious robot. "You should have seen her before I figured out her mind. Now that was work was truly terrible. She works perfectly fine now. There's just a few things I have to settle and she'll be at full robot master status."**

**"I just don't get it." The perspective of the memory shifted as Cut Man leaned against a wall. "Why are you keeping her? Can't you just make another robot master your technical assistant?"**

**Wily opened his mouth to speak, but as he did, little Crystal smacked her screwdriver with a loud bang against the now complete mettool's head. She gleefully flung the screwdriver away and yelled loudly.**

**"I'm all done!" she announced. "Upgrade time!"**

**The mad doctor laughed, nearing the girl and lowering down to her level. "Sweetheart, don't be so loud. You're hurting Daddy's ears."**

**"Oops!" the little robot hastily put both hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry, Daddy!"**

**"It's alright. Shut down now, and Cut Man will take you to the repair labs."**

**"Okay!"**

**She did this at once, slumping to the ground as she deactivated her systems. Cut Man went over and picked her up without being told to (he was by then far used to that sort of thing) and he shifted the little robot girl to his shoulder, following Dr. Wily out of the room. The old man led the way to the repair labs, glancing back at Crystal Bot every so often. Those glances, though quick as they were, held touches of softness rarely seen in Dr. Wily. His smile deepened.**

Crystal Bot shut down the memory.

_He really did think of me as his child...he cared about me! I could have had the life of a baddie...being a supervillain's daughter..._

She giggled. She couldn't help it. Turning back to the computer, Crystal Bot put a haughty grin on her face, placing her hands on her hips.

"I am the great Doctor Sinistra Wily! Fear me, pitiful humans! I do not go to fancy dress balls, I blow them up! Muaahahahaha!"

Crystal Bot frowned. Her evil laugh sounded far too cute.

"MuahaahahaHAHAHAA! Eh, better. I'm going to have to get some practice in. One more time, muahaha-"

A knock sounded on the door, and Crystal Bot jumped, slapping her hands over her mouth. She was silent a moment, and hoped desperately that whoever it was would go away. But no, a little later and the same knocking came again.

"Sona-chan, are you there? It's Roll!"

"Oh, um..." Crystal Bot quickly threw the tattered cloak over Cut Man's head and shut off the monitor. "Come on in!"

The housekeeper-bot intruded cheerfully, hauling in a short-sleeve tuxedo (for robots) as well as two glittery dresses. While Roll was just wearing her normal dress, her hair was already done, swept up in a curly and eloquent ponytail. Two of her longer bangs drooped down in the front, also curly and lovely. A tasteful amount of glitter was sprinkled on her face, and she glowed.

"Aw, you look all shiny, Roll-chan!" Crystal Bot gushed. "It's so cool!"

"Thanks!" Roll, finding no other place to put the outfits, hung them on a pipe running along the wall. "I ran into Kalinka on the way here, and I think she's way too worried about this event. I know you're not really about fancy clothes, so I volunteered to make you look nice for her. She's so worried that everything won't be perfect in front of all those important people! Really, she should go into politics with how much she cares about image and being social. Oh, where's Bass?"

Crystal Bot stuck her thumb over at the automated machine. "He's getting cleaned up now. I think Kalinka doesn't want him to wear his helmet out there. He doesn't like that."

"He wears it too much!" Roll laughed. "He actually has nice hair. He should really show it off. So anyway, I'm going to start on your hair and makeup first, then we'll get to our dresses, if Bass isn't out before then. His tux is going to be the hardest! Okay, so sit here and I'll get started on doing something nice with your hair. I think you can wear yours up with the dress I got for you..."

Crystal Bot sat in the chair as she was told, letting a chatty Roll do what she wanted with her hair. She didn't mind, nor did she speak much. The thought of Dr. Sinistra Wily still ran through her head, and it was a delicious musing. She didn't want to let it go.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I need to write more Bass and Treble scenes. Bass is a lot happier when he can just hang out with his dog.

- Hey, if you tried to message me in the past few days or whenever and it didn't let you through, sorry. For some reason the site keeps disabling my private message function and I have to fix it repeatedly. Is it doing that to you too?

=====Cut Man

**"Snip-snippety-snip!"**

Good Point: Sharp and cunning  
Bad Point: Stubborn  
Like: Haircuts  
Dislike: Rocks

I really like Cut Man. He's very cute. His level's music pretty much represents what Mega Man music is supposed to be. I just love how angry he looks in the game when he fights you, but it would be more handy if he had more powers or something. Oh well, the randomness of the robot masters in MM1 made the game interesting.

As for my story, Cut Man was of course stolen by Wily from Dr. Light. Dr. Wily was involved in the construction of the Team 1 robots, but this was when he more or less learned to work on robots and his influence wasn't very big on them. Cut Man was one of his favorites throughout the Team 1 scheme...up until Mega Man tore him up. Metal Man was created to outdo Cut Man, but in the end Wily still used Cut Man to administrate and pass down his orders to the other robot masters or to mechaniloids. He's not too great as a leader, but Cut Man is an excellent lackey. That alone keeps him in Wily's good graces.

In the Ruby-Spears cartoon Cut Man always made lots of puns, and I have to admit this influenced me. The voice actor was one of the few in that cartoon that actually did a really good job in bringing out their character (or maybe it's due to the writers), and come on, if you had to voice a robot with giant hedge clippers on his head, wouldn't you make him do puns?

=====Guts Man

**"Maximum power!"**

Good Point: Sentimental  
Bad Point: One-track mind  
Like: Karaoke  
Dislike: Arguments

Ah, Guts Man and his remarkable posterior. I'm not really enamored of the Ruby-Spears Guts Man, but it's still funny. In any case, I know I didn't get to show too much of him, but Guts Man is still awesome. He's the most friendly of all the Team 1 robots. He's a little smarter than most people think that he is, and after his loss to Mega Man he ended up being a bodyguard and enforcer for Wily. He's Wily's favorite because while he was still working with Dr. Light, Wily programmed Guts Man's battle AI without Light's help. Guts Man's normal AI is all Light.

Over the years Guts Man was in and out of the robot museum, and about after MM7 he managed to stay out of it for good. A lot of the other robot masters respect him for being an original and for being cool, but a lot of them think he's gets everything from being Wily's favorite. Guts Man is above all of this, and doesn't really care what others think, though sometimes it gets on his nerves enough for him to lose his temper. Anyone challenging him to a fight gets to see a whole other side to him, and he's a ferocious contestant, to the point where it interferes with thinking strategically. When he fights, it's like "KILL, KILL" rather than "my opponent is doing this, so I should react like this".

Gutso was killed by Bass about three weeks after the last Skull Castle was destroyed. Crystal Bot wanted to keep Guts Man because she liked him, but Bass thought it would be funnier to give the butt to Mega Man for Christmas. Mega Man didn't keep it, but sent it to the robot museum (where the rest of the body was). That's where Guts Man is at the writing of this story.


	3. At the Ball

Mega Man was a little surprised to find that he'd been invited to Kalinka's ball. It was mainly for scientists, and out of those mostly Russian ones. Mega Man liked to think of himself as something of a scientist, as he had been Dr. Light's assistant a long time ago. Thinking of those days was difficult, not only because Dr. Light was now gone, but because they seemed like something out of a lost age. If Mega Man worked on anything scientific these days, it had something to do with fighting.

He shook his head. This was not the night to think about it. He was, after all, arriving to enjoy the festivities. This event wasn't supposed to be about business, though undoubtedly bringing a bunch of science nerds into the same room, however formal, would inevitably lead them into scientific debate. Mega Man looked forward to it. He wasn't the most learned of robots, but he could keep up in one of their conversations, or so he hoped.

Thus he, in his spiffy tuxedo (that Roll had picked out for him), was wandering into the grand hall of Dr. Cossack's lab. It was a marvelous place, with a high, arched ceiling and pillars lining the way. Kalinka's decorations did a good job of disguising the fact that the entire place on any other day looked like it was out of a science fiction movie. Today it looked quite eloquent.

Rock tugged at the bright bow tie around his neck as he walked down the hall. He wore it to please his sister, as he didn't really like having things around his neck. Thankfully though, she had allowed it to be a bright shade of blue, matching his blue vest. Roll said he looked spiffy, and Mega Man didn't mind the outfit so much. It was something different from his usual routine. It sort of annoyed him that the sleeves had to be cut at the shoulders so that his busters were exposed, but fitting a tuxedo over his bulky wrists would have been tacky.

The security check was up ahead, and Mega Man noticed two other people dressed up. Their tuxedos were significantly more boring than his - being security, they couldn't outshine the guests. One of these was very clearly Skull Man. He stood at the door, stiff and unmoving. Rock shuddered. Skull Man in a tux was at least twice as creepy as regular Skull Man. Making it worse, someone had seen fit to give him a fake mustache. This, needless to say, did not lend a sense of eloquence to the security staff.

The other security guard was someone Mega Man didn't recognise. He had short, blonde hair, and his sharp features looked Austrian. Clearly he was not one of the Cossack-bots. He seemed to be assigned to checking the guest list. Something about him seemed completely familiar, however. He reminded Mega Man of someone, but he just couldn't think of who. Rock tried as hard as he could to remember. It was just out of his reach...

Noticing the stare, the security guard glared at him.

"Yes, Rock, I'm wearing a tuxedo. You can get over it now."

"What...Bass? That's you?" Mega Man grinned. "Oh wow, you look sharp."

Bass rolled his eyes, wincing at the compliment. "Erg, whatever. Dr. Cossack is just lucky I have to do what he says."

"Come on, don't you enjoy dressing up once in a while?"

"You're completely insane." Bass sneered, waving towards the door. "Get going. I've got a job to do."

Mega Man did go, still only amused at the dark robot and hoping that he learned to relax at some point. That wasn't going to be happening any time soon. Bass had to check the list for guest after guest. As much as Bass despised the task, it wasn't as hard as it might seem. There were no party crashers trying to get in, and Dr. Weinburger (a known troublemaker among the robotics geeks) was no trouble at all to scare off, especially when using a robot skeleton with a fake mustache. Fortunately the level of invitees entering slowed after a time, allowing Bass more of a break. He was just about to check the list one last time and then hand the door over to Skull Man for the rest of the night when a certain shiny girl-bot interrupted.

"Hey Forte-kun, I'm here!" Crystal Bot merrily announced as she approached a grimacing Bass. "Don't I look pretty?"

Bass rolled his eyes. If she really wanted him to respond encouragingly, then "pretty" was not the word to use. As worthless as the word was to Bass, it still was definitely an accurate description of how Crystal Bot looked. Her deep green dress was a halter top with a baby doll waist, decorated there with all manner of crystals and clear gems. Her hair was in a simple bun, but a dress like that doesn't require much from hair. Together with the sparkles, her dress made her look far more shiny than usual.

"Whatever." Bass answered with a sound measure of grumpiness. He handed the guest list to Skull Man and let him stand behind the grand podium. He lead Crystal Bot off to the side a little before asking, "What did you find on Cut Man? Took you long enough."

"You can stand to be more patient." Crystal stuck out her tounge. "Unfortunately, not much. Somebody deleted his memories from about a month ago, and all that was left was some really encrypted data which I assume was some orders."

"From Wily?"

"I don't think so." Crystal tried to reach up and twist her hair, but her bun prevented her from doing this, so she just folded her arms. "Whoever did this took some way unnecessary measures. The scripted orders were placed in Cut Man as a sub-directive."

Bass knew that a directive was a core motive for robots, their purpose their creators gave them for living. "So?"

"Directives work whether or not robots are aware of them. Not even Cut Man would know exactly what he's doing out here." Crystal Bot said. "I just dunno why Wily would go through that kind of trouble. Maybe he knew Cut Man might run into you or something."

"He's obviously trying to make sure I don't find Zero." Bass was starting to get annoyed. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Well, I've got the lab and one of my brains working on the encrypted orders, but that's going to take a while. Other than that, Cut Man's memory's been wiped of anything recent. It's weird because they encoded it so you can't tell right away that those memories were deleted. There's nothing to find. It's like whoever did it wanted to waste a hacker's time." the girl-bot started to fidget. "So, I figured there's time for me to hang out at the party. I mean, Roll-chan got me this nice shiny dress and all so I might as well wear it and talk to all the science people!"

Bass eyed his gleeful technician with demure frustration. She, however, was on the guest list despite of all of his earlier protests to Kalinka. Since when did Kalinka listen to him? He grunted and gave up with a wave of his hand.

"Fine. Just go."

Much to his frustration Crystal Bot stayed there, only fidgeting more. "And I was kinda thinkin' that maybe you would be extra nice and dance with me..."

Just when he thought he couldn't force his expression into a more unwelcoming one, Bass glared even worse. "First of all, I'm security. This is a _job_. Secondly, there are not enough plasma cannons in the entire earth to persuade me to dance."

"But..but..." Her eyes grew

"You heard me." Bass immediately cut off all objection. "Get out of my sight."

"Fine!" she huffed and stomped her foot. "I'll just go dance with Rock!"

"Are you seriously trying to make me jealous with that? Go have fun with the dweeb for all I care. Sheesh. Just leave me alone."

"Fine, I will!"

Crystal Bot went over to the large, imposing doors with her nose in the air, stubbornly going on. She paused at the doorknob, glancing back at Bass. He was talking to Skull Man for a moment, and Skull Man's grave-ish voice calmly explained the positioning of the other security-bots. A buzzing radio signal indicated that Bass was sending a close range transmission, probably one to Ring Man, checking in with him. He turned around, suprised to see that Crystal Bot was still standing there. She stuck out her lip, looking as pitiful as she could.

"You're not really gonna make me dance with Rock, are you?"

"I'm not making you do anything." Bass retorted with a scowl. "Do what you want."

"I wanna dance with you..."

Bass let out his dark and evil glare, and though it didn't quite have the same effect when he was helmetless and wearing a tuxedo, it was nonetheless effective. Crystal Bot knew that she wasn't going to get her way. She protested with a stomp on the hard floor, but Bass was not going to give in.

"Fine..." Crystal Bot scowled. "I'll just go dance with Dr. Cossack. He's actually nice. Kalinka will think it's funny."

The dark robot groaned. "Leave him alone, Sonata. You're a robot and you'll step on his foot and break it."

"No, I won't!" she insisted. "I can be careful! You'll see!"

Bass rolled his eyes. He couldn't possibly care any less than he already did. "Sonata...go away."

"But-"

"Hurry up! I'm working here!"

"Fine, fine..."

Tired of being yelled at, Crystal Bot finally stomped her way to the doors before straightening herself up and entering with what little grace she did possess. Bass gritted his teeth; if Kalinka weren't sure to lecture him about messing up her party, then he would have given in and fired a shot off at her. The thought of how aggravated Kalinka would get completely ruined any imaginary enjoyment he got from the concept anyway. For the moment, he settled for scanning the front entrance again. He wished that some of the Wily-bots would crash the party and cause trouble. It wasn't worth being in security personnel otherwise.

_Man, this good guy crap really sucks._ Bass huffed. _Rock has no clue how lucky he is right now that I'm not after him._

The thought of Mega Man gave Bass an idea. He grinned one of his evil grins and sent out a transmission.

_" - Hey Rock, Crystal said she wanted to dance with you tonight. Make sure you ask her at some point. - "_

_" - Really? Okay then, I will! - "_

Forte's grin only grew more evil. At least he would have that bit of entertainment tonight as he bothered with the silly security job.

-t-

Mega Man cut off the transmission and smiled to himself. _Crystal Bot wants to dance? Sounds like fun._

For the moment, he was busy. There were so many people to meet in that grand hall, and Rock wanted to talk with Dr. Cossack before too long. The night was young, and the parties Kalinka threw were long-lived. This ball was grander than any Rock had seen at the Cossack lab. Though he hadn't been to a lot of parties, many people who had commented the same. The halls of Cossack generally looked like bleak and quaint sets for an old science fiction movie that had come to life. Whatever Kalinka had done transformed the place into a grand hall. Draping cloths covered up telltale details of the large laboratory (which had been longed cleaned out for the Cossack girl), and the dancing floor was perfectly glossed wood that would not collect scuff marks from shoes no matter how long the party lasted. A classical band with no less than ten members played ballroom music. With candles, dim lights, and mummira waiters bearing wine, the look was complete.

Even the Cossack robots not serving as security were dressed for the occasion. Pharoah Man seemed to be the grand host for the evening, and was looked more regal than ever, despite the fact that he was the only Cossack-bot not wearing a tux. Egyptian robes suited him well. Ring Man (another security unit) was around the back of the room keeping an eye on the party and his scans on. Even Bright Man was in his own custom suit, made especially for his very non-conforming body shape. He seemed to be entertaining a group of scientists, and laughter came from that group often.

Rock decided that he would head over and try to find Dr. Cossack. There was no rush. Plenty of people would want to shake his hand, but Rock was eager to get a word in. The Russian doctor had been good friends with Dr. Light, and Mega Man felt closer to Cossack than he did to anyone else there, other than the person interrupting his search. His sister, who had gotten there well before him, was walking up, and she matched the party atmosphere with her fancy hair and long, shimmering red dress. It was simple, but nice, being just as fancy as required without taking away from any of the cuteness that was Roll's aura.

"And introducing my greatest acheivement this year," Roll announced, dramatically lifting an arm for emphasis. "Kalinka Cassock!"

The Russian girl certainly was a sight to see as she twirled around. She wore a deep, burgandy gown with a mermaid style waist and a wide, poofy bottom. Her hair was done in eloquent curls that draped like curtains over her stately features. There was even a little minature tiara on top of her head. All in all, she looked like a glamourous winter princess.

"Wow, you look really nice tonight!" Rock was encouraging.

"Thank you very much!" she said with polite dignity, though she had to hide her giggle to keep this image up. "I have to look my best!"

"I have to say, you really did a good job with this party." Mega Man said. "It looks wonderful. And so many guests are here."

"I worked very hard on this." the Cossack princess replied. "I love my Papa, but he does not always realize that there's more to science than sitting in lab with no more company than a few robots and working on the computer all day! Everything has to do with relationships! Perhaps if things go well, I can start on my plan to find myself a stepmother!"

Roll had to laugh. "No way! You wouldn't do that!"

"I tease only." Kalinka winked. "Still, Papa is such a nerd, and I don't like him being in the lab alone. It is such a big place for one man to be, especially now that his little girl is off getting an education."

"Speaking of your father, where is he?" Rock asked.

"He is over with those scientists by the dance floor. I wish he would ask someone to dance, but his first love is technology." Kalinka pouted a little. It wasn't a very serious pout, but it was very dramatic. "I wish Proto Man could have come. He would have fun with us here."

"I don't know where he is right now." Mega Man wished the same as Kalinka. "Just like always. Actually, I'm looking for your father right at the moment. I'd like to relax tonight, but I've still got some business to complete. I wanted to talk to him about hacking into enemy robots and that new recovery program-"

"Ack, you are just the same as him!" Kalinka teased, flipping her hand up as if exasperated. "Always thinking about work. He complained even worse than Bass did about getting dressed up. You will find him over there, near Ring Man. You might not see him because he is in that big huddle of scientists."

Mega Man turned to where Kalinka was pointing, and it was actually easy to see where the Russian doctor was. His tux jacket was white, and his beard was just as wild as it was any other day. Mega Man almost laughed. Anyone looking like that probably wasn't going to be bringing home a stepmother for Kalinka any time soon, unless he could find someone that actually liked that kind of hair. Or had the patience to tame the mad monster he called a beard.

"He's not busy, is he?" Rock asked. "I'd like to talk to him."

"Hey, he is never too busy for you. You are like his son." Kalinka laughed a very socialite laugh. "Just go on, little brother. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go find a nice man to ask me to dance."

"What about that guy?" Roll said, pointing to a young, brown haired man in a black tux and red tie. "He seems nice."

"Alyosha Polovstiansky?" the Russian girl scoffed. "That big geek? Ew. No way. Ha, you can't listen to robots when it comes to men!"

The girl cheerfully waved as she walked away, heading towards a crowd of young people near the dance floor. This left Roll a little embarrassed, and Mega Man was surprised to see that she looked a little worried.

"Since when are you a matchmaker, Roll?" Mega Man laughed. "Come on, Kalinka can handle herself."

"I...I guess so." Roll quickly tried to change the subject before her brother asked too many questions. "Um...oh hey, there's Crystal Bot! Sona-chan, over here!"

"Roll-chan!"

It wasn't long before the extra-shiny girl-bot was giggling and talking Roll about how wonderful it was to be there at the party.

"See, I told you that you would like it." Roll insisted. "Isn't it just marvelous in here tonight?"

"Pssht, come on, I'm just happy that all these scientists are here." Crystal Bot huffed. "I don't care about the candles or the decorations or the music...or this shiny new dress...er, um, not one bit!"

They both burst out laughing. It was a clearly a lie. Despite her earlier misgivings, the shiny-ness of it all had won her over. Girlish chatter wasn't that interesting to Mega Man, but he figured that he might as well ask Crystal Bot to dance while she was standing there. He could always speak to Dr. Cossack later.

"I really like this song." he said. "It would be nice to be able to dance to it. Crystal Bot, how would you like to join-"

"Teleportation field converters!" Crystal suddenly burst out, directing this at Roll. "That's what I told Forte! And then suddenly I was able to increase a robot's teleportation range by almost thirty percent! Come on, I've got to go tell...um, um...those guys over that way!"

Crystal Bot's wild finger pointed somewhere to the right, jutting out so quickly that it didn't seem to focus on anyone in particular. Before Roll knew it, she was being ushered off somewhere in that direction, and the two girl-bots got lost in the crowd, but not before Crystal could shoot back a nasty glare Rock's way. Mega Man stood there stunned for a moment.

_Ugh, Bass was lying. I can't believe I fell for that. _Mega Man noted, a little amused by the irony. _I doubt Crystal will ever forgive me for not being destroyed by him._

That was Crystal Bot, ever far, far too supportive of her arrogant boss. Mega Man glanced over at Dr. Cossack. He was still talking, but he was having a conversation with Rock's closest "relative": Dr. Imahara, Dr. Light's second cousin in-law. This delighted the bomber, because he knew he could enter join their talk easily and without objection. Now if only Proto Man would show up, and then his night would be complete.

-t-

Proto Man was in a suburb outside of downtown Monstropolis. It was a very, very early morning in California, and each of the houses were dark and solemn, lightless other than a couple of porchlights. Most of the people would be asleep still. Proto Man, however, knew that Leila would not be. She always stayed up late on her computer, playing Warcraft or Starcraft II. On the rare occasion she would study. It was her last year of high school, and she needed to finish up her grades at a good level so that she could get into the college she planned on. After she pwned a few noobs on battle .net, of course. Given that this was Saturday morning, Proto Man doubted that she had gotten any sleep at all. She had to stay up all hours if she wanted to play with the Koreans.

Blues visited Leila often. He had been doing so for many years, after her father had died. Proto Man could guess how hard it was for a girl to grow up without a father, and he wanted to help as much as a wandering robot could. It was strange how much attachment he could feel for the poor girl, and he wondered how Dr. Light could have invented such complex emotions. He wasn't sure that he liked them, especially not the turmoil that only continued to grow inside him.

Leila's house, the one she shared with her mother, was a small house with blue vinyl siding. The grass looked nicely mowed, but really it was just a good kind of grass. Leila's mother was all about an beautiful yard, as the perfect pink flower bushes and cluster of gnomes clearly showed. A real estate agent would classify the home as "adorable" or "cute". Cute wasn't really in Proto Man's vocabulary, not for houses, in any case. Not that he was thinking about living spaces. There was too much else occupying his mind for any small subject to have his attention.

Tonight's endeavor was the one he dreaded the most, though he knew at some point that it was going to have to happen. He tried to deny it, but here it was coming to pass just as fate laid out for him. For years he had watched over Leila, protecting her and providing her mother with money (they never asked where it came from, and he never said), and before he had realized it, Leila admired him and befriended him despite his standoffish nature. It never occurred to her to think of Proto Man as strange. To her he was a superhero. Proto Man wished with all his heart that that description was true.

It wasn't. By no means was he a hero. Tonight was the night he was finally going to reveal the truth. It was something he'd been thinking about ever since his power core had been restored, and it wasn't something he could ignore forever. He had to confess, if he was going to continue living. He could only hope she would take it well. It was a very stupid hope, the hope that a sinful snowball clung to as it found itself descending into the pits of hell.

Proto Man waited outside. He was reluctant to knock on Leila's window. It was hard enough for him to come in the first place, and facing her house only made it worse. He steeled himself up, trying to be as steady as he could as he approached. Unfortunately, before Blues was ready (would he ever really be ready?), he could see one of the front window blinds move. That would be Leila, peeking out at him. In a minute she would be outside, happy to see her disappearing/reappearing hero.

If only he really was one. She was never going to be happy to see him again.

-t-

In the distant, empty plains of Russia, Treble clawed his way through the snow. A storm had struck, and now flurries of snow were all around him, clouding his vision. His sensory equipment, however, was doing just fine. The cold weather made it easier to scan for heat signatures, the sure sign of a robot or human. Treble silently prowled onwards, keeping his nose down. He and his master had been searching Russia for months, and there had been little sign of anything. In fact, Cut Man's head was the first stroke of luck they'd had since their arrival. Bass had been hoping to follow Cut Man and figure out where he was going, but unfortunately a snow drift had interfered, and Cut Man fought him rather than give away his destination.

Treble growled. The snow in his face was starting to get on his nerves. Loyal dog he was, he simply put up with it. He had to please his master and keep up the search, and that meant braving the weather. It was handy not to be a living creature.

He sniffed. His scanners were picking up nothing. It was starting to look like he was going to have nothing to report to Bass. Treble blasted some warm air from his nostrils to keep off the frost.

"Roof?"

In his dog code, Treble expressed surprise. He could see two things sticking out from under the freshly falling snow, but he wasn't picking up any heat sensors. He approached with caution, but there was no need. Digging the loose snow around the metal produced no ill reactions, no attacks. He dug through the snow more, finally revealing one of the head of a robot master. It was Sword Man, or what was left of him. Some of the parts didn't match the fire-sword robot, so treble investigated further, finding half of a crystal headdress. It was easy to identify as Gemini Man's.

Treble growled. Whatever had happened, he knew he was close to something.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Doom. Totally mood backwards. I'm in a doom mood. For Proto Man at least. :D

Character profiles!

Gemini Man

**"My clones are very impressive!"  
**Good Point: Elegant  
Bad Point: Overconfidence  
Like: Mirror  
Dislike: Snake

I sort of wish I had given Gemini Man a better part of the story. I mean, there are just so many robot masters to get through. At least he got a death scene in Wily Ga Taosenai. I love Gemini Man's level design. Candy rave party!

Gemini Man was built by Drs. Light and Wily. Light intended for Gemini Man to work mining for crystals to power Gamma, and Wily was thinking the same thing, though only with the added part that Gemini Man would go fight Mega Man afterwards. Once Gemini Man and the other Team 3 robots were activated, Wily's viruses on them went to work and they rebelled against Light Laboratories and started going nuts. Since his defeat by Mega Man, Gemini Man was in and out of the robot museum.

Sword Man

**"There's no second chance!"**  
Good point: Incisive  
Bad point: Outdated  
Like: Swordsmanship  
Dislike: Faulty swords

Sword Man was always very dignified. He and his team were designed during the events of MM7. Like Burner Man, he was designed after one key idea and the rest of his design went with it. Wily gave him the biggest sword possible, forcing him to separate Sword Man's legs from his body and use magnet power to keep Sword Man upright.

To help Sword Man be able to fight, Wily loaded a bunch of swordfighting programs. These, however, included a lot of chivilry and manners, making Sword Man easily the most noble of the robot masters. He always felt a little awkward working for Wily, though of course his failsafes wouldn't allow him to betray the mad scientist. He was good friends with Crystal Man and Fire Man, the first for his (comparative) morality and the second for talking about fights. Fire Man was the closer friend, and without him Sword Man would have been really depressed working for Wily, especially since none of his team members really understood him (he hates Aqua Man).

From the time of his defeat he guarded the Wily Castles, up until the events of Okkusenman. He remained behind to defend the castle as long as he could, but most of the other robots had already run by that point and Tornado Man was about to get him, he sadly admitted defeat. Once the masters were scattered, Sword Man really didn't care that much about meeting up with any of them, especially considering that both of his friends were dead at that point. He spent most of his time around Japan and other Asian countries rescuing kidnapped people, forcing tech-bots to repair him, helping build orphanages, and stealing whatever money he needed. Yeah, he has questionable morality and a lot of confusion about it.


	4. The Fog of Time

"Augh!" Mega Man slumped back in the chair, the offensive bow tie finally undone and hanging loosely down his neck (he daren't lose it and have to tell Roll). "I just don't know anything about modern science these days. I tried talking to Dr. Cossack and Dr. Imahara, and it was so hard to keep up. That new technology they were talking about...it was just so above me!"

Mega Man brought this up because of Crystal Bot. This lab was full of all manner of technologies that he didn't recognise very well, and yet here she was casually using whatever tool or program she needed as if they were as commonplace as screwdrivers and hammers. Some of them he knew Auto had versions of in his lab, but others were Russian, and still more were custom inventions. A skilled scientific mind would know plenty about each, but most of Mega Man's technological data was twenty years old - he hadn't been a real lab assistant since then. Sonata, however, was comfortably wandering from machine to item to Bass, replacing parts and cleaning his armor. It was regular maintenance, particularly for someone that hadn't been in the lab for weeks.

It was the day after the party, at about four thirty in the morning. Only an hour ago Bass had been finishing up security detail, mostly making sure that all the guests were gone (and that pesky Dr. Weinburger not lurking about), as well as making sure specific scientists that Dr. Cossack allowed to stay for a while had all their equipment safely brought to a new laboratory Dr. Cossack had built for specific experiments on projects Russia was working on. The doctor was hoping to provide a cure for certain diseases, and the Russian government had just supplied him with extra funding. Bass cared little about the project and was very thankful when his duties were over; cleaning up after organics was Roll's job, not his, as he often remarked.

If Forte was a nicer person, he might have thanked Mega Man for helping. But he wasn't, and he didn't. He might have been able to muster up a "thanks" if it hadn't been for the fact that Mega Man was sitting in his lab right now, discussing the recovery of two (technically three) robots: Gemini Man and Sword Man. Besides the irritation of not being there when the bodies were found, Mega Man was in the lab, sticking his nose in. Moreover, the dark robot couldn't object; part of the conditions of his probation was that he had to allow Mega Man to see anything he was investigating. It wasn't a right that Rock used a lot, but that didn't mean Bass liked it. He had to make a constant effort not to glare.

"What do you mean?" Crystal Bot looked up from undoing some of the screws on Bass' arm to question Mega Man. "Do you mean when they were talking about AI redundancy systems or when they were talking about the best way to install pistons on scale 3 mechaniloids? Or did it have something to do with the electron particle data storage board?"

Mega Man's face froze, and his mouth hung open a little. Robot science had gone that far without him noticing it? What was that electron particle whatsit supposed to be exactly? Mega Man facepalmed and groaned. Crystal Bot enjoyed this reaction with a smug smile. Tormenting Mega Man about it was far too easy.

"Crystal, hurry up with that arm." Bass said, eager to get this situation over with. "I've got work to do."

"I got it, I got it." A swarm of sparks flew up from Bass' shoulder, and Crystal pulled away her blowtorch, finally able to pull the arm off. "You did something bad with this arm and its fused weird."

"Yeah, yeah, just hurry it up already."

The girl-bot hastily went off to the side of the room and more sparks proceeded to fly. This wasn't Crystal Bot's lab, but Dr. Cossack's. There were about five repair tables on the left side, three occupied by the aforementioned robots. The entire right side of the room was covered in Crystal Bot's hastily gathered supplies, so that she could be working on Bass while he got the investigation going. She knew how impatient he was. The lengthy room only had doors on the narrow north and south walls. This hall was for quick repairs, not for extensive works on the major Cossack-bots.

Bass used his other arm to wave Mega Man over to the left. "Come on and look at these guys. Treble found them last night buried in the snow. There was a snowstorm where this happened. Treble's still looking, but any tracks are long gone and it's a million to one for Treble to find anything in that snow."

"It's almost May." Mega Man noted. "There's a snowstorm this late?"

"This was up closer to the arctic circle. Spring never really happens up there."

Bass went over to the first of the three robot corpses, and Mega Man too came in for a look. This was the Gemini Man with slightly paler blue detailing: the clone. His armor was blackened and scorched, but next to him his originator was even worse off. Besides his blacked armor, Gemini Man's head was sliced clean through, and his headdress had snapped off somehow.

"It almost looks like they fought each other." Bass pointed out. "Because you see fire damage on Gemini Man, and there's the plasma laser damage on Sword Man."

Mega Man inspected Sword Man's damage. Whoever had killed him knew exactly what to do. His legs, which had always been separated from his body, were reduced to only facsimiles of legs. Without that support, it only took a shot through the torso and a shot to the head to end him.

"Wait, Sword Man used fire, but he couldn't have killed Gemini like this without hitting him with his sword." Mega Man exclaimed, leaning down closer over Gemini Man. "But there aren't any sword marks on Gemini Man! Even getting the top of his head cut off like that wasn't done by a sword. It's too rough, like it was pulled off."

"I know." Bass growled. He didn't appreciate Mega Man talking as if Bass hadn't already figured this out for himself. "It's obvious. Both of Gemini Man's CPUs were destroyed beyond repair. Sword Man's was damaged badly. Crystal Bot's trying to recover information from it in her lab, but it's anyone's guess how that will turn out. Sonata! Get over here and tell Rock what you found on Cut Man."

The girl-bot approached as she was told, though she wouldn't come too close. She liked Mega Man being around the lab about as much as Bass did, though the real problem were the broken robots. She stared at them, biting her lip in nervousness. Then she looked up at Mega Man. Seeing the pity in his eyes, she scowled and steeled herself to speak.

"Well, he was hanging out a lot with Team 2." Crystal Bot said. "Everybody besides Air Man was there. I don't know where they were meeting, but it might be a place that you recognise. I got you his CPU, and here's a disc that's got some specific things you wanna look at, like the path he took to go meet up with everybody."

The tech-bot handed Mega Man the CPU and a small zip drive. He tucked the CPU safely into his armor and stuck the zip drive into his neck. He nodded as the information ran through his mind and made itself known. As it processed, he felt himself filled with a sense of duty. Team 2 was the most serious and the strongest of the robot master teams, just the thought of fighting them again made Mega Man's selfless sense of heroism rise up. He just knew that he would be able to defeat them! Unconsciously he lifted a cute, determined fist, and Crystal Bot almost cracked a smile at how adorable he looked before she caught herself and forced in a frown.

Bass almost gagged. "So what was that encoded sub-directive that was supposed to be on Cut Man?"

This question got Mega Man out of his cute hero pose, much to Bass' relief. However, Crystal Bot seemed far less pleased with the question. She winced and made sure she turned to the right angle so that Bass and not Mega Man could see her the emphasis on her face. This lasted only an instant before Crystal Bot turned on her charm and pretended that nothing was wrong.

"It was deleted." Crystal Bot announced. "What I found out was if you try and hack into Cut Man's head, it'll automatically delete certain information, which is why Cut Man didn't remember the last month in his memory files. Someone does not want us to know what's going on here or in Monstropolis. I got the meeting with Team 2 and they were talking about getting Wily out of jail. That's all I know."

"Well, at least I know what I'll be doing next." Mega Man suddenly itched to go back home. "I can't give Dr. Wily the chance..."

A monitor on the right wall flashed, beeping three times before it stopped. It was a transmission, and Crystal Bot went over to answer it. With the push of a button, the face of a tall, Hispanic man appeared on the monitor. All three of them recognised him at once as Tim Reyes, their ethics agent.

"_Annyong_ Mr. Reyes!" Crystal Bot cheerfully greeted. "What's going on?"

Reyes, by then far used to Sonata's obsession with Korea, just nodded. "I need to speak with Bass."

Bass irritably approached the viewscreen, addressing Reyes with his typical disdain for authority. "So? What is it?"

The blue bomber was in the vision of the viewscreen, and Tim Reyes eyed him cautiously. "I need you to come to the American embassy in Moscow. I have an important and classified mission for you."

"Mission? Are you nuts?" Bass almost slammed his hand on the console, his fangs shining dangerously. "I'm getting closer than ever to figuring out what's going on over here and you're about to pull me away from that?"

"The nature of this mission makes it more immediate. Besides, you can get Mega Man over there to hold things down for a while."

That was the absolute worst thing he could have said. Bass was immediately in a pale, cold world where sights and sounds blurred into one, and only the most terrible words ever echoed coherently throughout the confusion and doubt. Bass only barely heard the few words that freed him from that doomed place.

"Oh, I'm due back at Monstropolis tomorrow, Mr. Reyes." Mega Man politely objected. "And in my professional opinion, it's more important that Bass stay here and complete this objective. Whatever Wily is planning, it's going to be involving both here and America, or at least that's how it looks right now. We need him to keep working on this."

It was clear to everyone in the lab that Reyes regretted his choice of words. He cleared his throat and went on. "All the same, I need Bass to report in. Trust me, if this weren't important then I would find someone else."

The tone of the human's words sounded almost like flattery, at least to Bass' ears, and it was a step in the right direction. In any case, the dark robot was legally obligated to obey (how he was growing sick of all these laws!) and that meant he would be stopping by the American embassy. He sighed, giving in.

"I'll be right there." he said in a lot nicer voice than he had planned.

Reyes nodded, and the screen went blank. Once the vision was gone, Bass immediately walked off and snatched one of Crystal Bot's long distance teleporters, ready to leave. Turning around, he found himself face to face with a very nervous tech-bot.

"Um, Forte..." she nervously wrung her hands. "You're not gonna leave me here alone with Rock and those...those..."

Bass gritted his fangs in obvious annoyance, trying to make sure Crystal Bot knew that aggravating him was a worse fate than putting up with Mega Man and the broken bodies of old robot masters. Crystal Bot countered this with a pitiful lower lip, but that sort of manipulation never worked on Bass.

"I've got a _job_ to do, Sonata." Bass hissed, past the point of being amused by her fear of death. "Now stop whining. Rock and dead idiots aren't going to hurt you. Rock's got to take them back to Monstropolis for the robot museum so go get him some crates."

"But..."

"Go!"

"Fine!" she pouted. "Here, take this."

She held out a zip drive to him and he quickly stuck it under his armor before teleporting out and leaving Crystal to her own whims. The information loaded into his mind as he landed in a round room inside of the embassy. It was a room he had seen from time to time, so he was used to having an armed guard waiting for him. Mostly. None of the governments really trusted him, and if he hadn't been working from Dr. Cossack's, Russia wouldn't have allowed him into their country until after his probation was complete, if then.

The staunch guard led him into a pleasant office. It was not remarkable to Bass, but anyone who appreciated interior design would have called it cozy and at once wanted to take a seat on one of the brown leather couches against the wall. Bookcases filled the places on the wall where the couches weren't, as if it were some small legal library instead of an office. That myth was dispelled by the very professional wooden desk that sat in front of the large window, surrounded by chairs as any officer's desk would be. The placard said that the office belonged to a Lieutenant Venston, but Tim Reyes was the one sitting there.

"You may leave." Reyes told the soldier. "I won't be needing you."

"Are you sure, sir?"

The soldier couldn't help a sidelong glance at Bass, suspicious. Bass frowned back, but said nothing. It wasn't good to act up in front of Reyes, who was legally in charge of his probation and could add time to it at will.

"It's fine. Now go on." the agent assured the young soldier. "Go on."

"Yes, sir."

Once the guard left, Bass promptly took a chair. As nice as it was to be given this opportunity over Rock, Bass was still eager to get it over with and deal with Zero.

"What happened to your arm?" Reyes asked, eyeing Bass' empty left shoulder.

"It's being worked on." Bass placed his remaining arm on the table. "What's this all about, Reyes?"

"All business still, I see." The Hispanic man sat down on the other side of the desk. "Well, it turns out that I have a mission I need you to look into. Mega Man isn't appropriate for this mission, and I need someone skilled enough to pull this one off."

The side of Bass' mouth turned up into a grin. Reyes really thought he was more skilled than Mega Man? Or was this just flattery? Either way, he was starting to feel far more open to whatever mission this was going to be. He relaxed a little in the chair.

"We have someone here guilty of several crimes." the ethics agent continued, placing a file in front of Bass. "Most of them pertain to espionage and various thefts, and at least one confirmed murder. The suspect is a robot, and we need to recover his CPU."

Bass took a look at the documents in the file, each one outlining a different crime. The dark robot started to get a strange feeling. "Most of these crimes are from several years ago."

"Yes, that's true. It's the murder that most of my superiors are concerned about. Up til now the evidence against the subject was circumstantial, but now he actually admitted commiting the crime. You know how the law feels about robots, and there's the possibility that he's responsible for more deaths. We want him taken in."

Bass stopped, his eyes widening in shock as he stared at a picture in the file. "What...what _is _this crap? This better not be some kind of joke!"

Tim Reyes took a deep breath of air, sighing as he let it out. "It's not. The fugitive you're looking for is Proto Man."

Bass' jaw dropped. That was nothing he had ever expected. There had always been rumors about what Proto Man did over the years, and people always gossiped about various theories. He never expected any of these accusations to be serious, much less Blues actually admit that he had done anything wrong. This was so far off of what Bass guessed Proto Man was capable of that he didn't know what to say.

"No, no way." Bass slammed the papers back down on the desk. "That guy? Not possible. He's the most self-righteous little prick Dr. Light ever built - a _Light_-bot for crying out loud. I mean, I get the espionage thing, but he's always going around telling people to straighten up and fly right."

Tim rubbed his eyes. "Have you really learned anything about what happened before your creation? Proto Man did serve Wily as a free range agent for a few years during the Team 2 and Team 3 incidents. Possibly even earlier. You as a Wily robot should know this."

Bass did know about Proto Man having worked for Wily, but he had always halfway suspected that it had been a scheme on Proto Man's part to protect Rock. In any case, Dr. Wily had never been eager to talk about Proto Man unless it was about killing him. It wasn't as if he was going to explain the whole history to Bass. If Bass had cared enough, he could have asked one of the robot masters. As it was, he just glared at Reyes. He didn't like being referred to as one of Albert's creations no matter how true it was.

"Wily wasn't a talkative guy." was all Bass muttered. "And I still don't believe that Proto Man is behind this."

"I understand how you feel." Tim said. "Before we had the confession, many people in the robotics ethics agency were considering pardoning him for the other crimes. Lately he's done everything he could to help Monstropolis even despite being wanted. Others feel that Proto Man is far too dangerous and secretive to be allowed any trust without being extensively reprogrammed, and then allowed to live as long as he used his considerable skills to help us."

"Proto Man listening to the government?" Bass snorted. "That'll be the day."

"He is stubborn." Reyes agreed. "Though some people said that about you. In any case, his confession has changed the situation entirely. The law is very strict about this. He has to be brought in. Here. Take this zip drive. It has the footage of the security camera on it the night that Gamma was stolen."

Forte took the drive and plugged it in, watching as the camera showed a scene of the Team 3 robot masters and Proto Man going throughout a large science facility. Blues and Hard Man trailed a security guard, one who fired off several rounds from his plasma pistol as he backed away through a door. Both robots followed him, and Bass could see the hint of darkness that meant Shadow Man was sneaking along right behind them. All of them left the security camera's range, though Bass could see the flashings of what was either Proto Man's plasma buster or the rockets of Hard Man's hard knuckle.

As Bass was watching all of this, Tim explained. "That security guard is the victim. His name was Richard Copenhagen, and he was guarding the 'peace-keeping' robot Gamma that night at Light Industries Warehouse. He left behind his wife Tessa and daughter Leila."

Bass was familiar with that scheme. It was after Dr. Wily's first two schemes had been stopped and he had pretended to come to his senses to fool Dr. Light into thinking that he had changed his ways. Wily even said he wanted to make sure that no one could ever try to take over the world the same way he had again. That was the inspiration for Gamma. Of course it was a trick and Wily stole Gamma for himself. Bass nodded and Reyes went on.

"Until yesterday, that was the only evidence we really had of the murder. As you can see, it's not very conclusive. Most of us were inclined to think that Proto Man wouldn't have done it because of his behavior in the past Wily incidents. Then we find out that it was him all along."

Bass shook his head. "This is nuts. I mean, you've been after this guy for years and you haven't caught him?"

"You know how evasive he is. That, and he keeps making all the right friends. If it weren't for Dr. Cossack, the Russian government might have dismantled him by now. I don't even think Cossack knows how much being able to hide at his lab has helped Proto Man."

"Cossack is a pretty calm guy." Bass agreed.

"So you see why it's obvious Mega Man can't be involved in this." Reyes leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk. "We've gotten in his reports how exactly he feels about his 'brother'. My boss wants to know exactly where you stand."

"Me? I can't stand the guy. He's a pest. But this?" Bass shoved the reports all back toward the human. "This doesn't sound like him at all. He's too moral for any of this. He's the last person that would ever want to kill someone. I mean, hell, I worked for Wily most of my life and I never killed anyone. It's not exactly impossible."

"You have to remember, Bass, he confessed himself. He actually went to the Copenhagen household and told Leila that he was the one that did it. Want to know the worst part about this?"

"No."

"I have to tell you anyway. I don't know why I asked." Reyes sighed. "Leila Copenhagen was one of Proto Man's biggest supporters. For years Proto Man did what he could to help her family, but now it appears that he was doing so out of guilt. She never knew this, and she thought he was doing it...I don't know, out of kindness."

"That's really sick." Bass did have to admit that that was a little more like Proto Man, but it still didn't make any sense to him. "Hell, I don't believe any of this! Proto Man hasn't done anything like this in a long time, even if this crap is true!"

Reyes frowned. "If Dr. Light had been murdered, how long would it take you to forget?"

That was a low blow, and if Reyes didn't know it already, then the sheer evil in Bass' eyes would have clarified that very quickly. Bass hissed impatiently, leaning back in his chair. The human was right.

"I still think this is all bullcrap," Bass said. "But I'll bring him in. If he's half as moral as he pretends to be, he won't be too much trouble."

"You think he would come in willingly?"

"Eh, if he's confessing this crap, then yeah, probably. There's no telling where Proto Man will show up at any given time, but the really lucky thing about this is it'll be easy to find him. I'm getting more leads on whatever Wily's planning out here in Russia, and if it looks bad enough Proto Man will show up. He's about as interested in taking down Wily's crap as I am, so he'll be back at some point."

"Good." Reyes started to gather up the papers and put them back in the folder. "In the meantime I want a report about all you know about him. Also, let me remind you that a lot of my superiors have their eyes on you. You might be out of the country, but you're still not exactly a favorite for the Robotics Ethics Agency."

"They're not my favorites either." Bass scoffed, taking the zip drive out of his neck and abruptly jutting it back out at the official. "Now are we done here?"

Reyes stared at Bass a moment. He silently held his hands out, indicating for Bass to keep it. With that, he folded his hands on the table, deliberately witholding his answer simply to test Forte's patience.

"Not quite." he said finally. "First I need to know your exact assessment of his character. I would rather we catch him without having to alert the media, because I'm not sure how Mega Man would react to this. I don't even know if Mega Man can handle learning this about Proto Man without doing something irrational. His...terminal naiivety can be somewhat unpredictable. However, if Proto Man is too great a threat, then we're just going to have to risk it. Can we afford to keep this as quiet as possible or is Proto Man too serious a threat?"

Bass could hardly believe his auditory sensors. "A threat? That guy doesn't want to hurt anyone. He's all about thwarting Wily. Just look at him around Rock! He's always saving him from his own stupidity and all that crap. I don't know what he was in the past, but nowadays he's just out to do the right thing."

"That's what you want me to submit to the agency?"

"That's the truth."

"Okay. I believe you." Tim stood up, prompting Forte to do the same. "I'll let you get to it then. You're saying that the best way to catch him is let him come to you, right?"

"Yeah."

"And if he's doesn't come?"

"Then he's dead." Bass was abrupt about it, and he spoke quickly as he started programming in the right teleport coordinates. "He's always going to be where he thinks he's needed."

"Alright, good luck then."

"I don't need luck. I know what I'm doing."

Before teleporting out, Bass stuck the zip drive Crystal had given him in his neck. It contained little, only some information. Bass' eyes widened. Cut Man's sub-directive hadn't been deleted; it was to go and find Zero. The coordinates of where to find Zero had been deleted, unfortunately, but if Cut Man had been sent, others were likely headed that direction as well. Luring Proto Man out there wasn't going to be hard at all.

Bass teleported out.

\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- "Scale 3" is a reference to how big a mechaniloid is. Scale 1 is smaller than a person, Scale 2 is larger than a person to about the size of a car, and Scale 3 is the step up from there, usually the biggest that legal robots ever get. Scale 4 exists, but is very rare, like Gamma or one of Wily's bigger castle baddies.

- Man...it's so much easier to write Crystal Bot when she's being bad.

Character profiles!

=====Air Man  
**"What wind blows you here?"**  
Good Point: Putting on airs  
Bad Point: Windy talk  
Like: Surfing  
Dislike: Fall of the leaf  
Japanese data  
Good Point: Stylish  
Bad Point: Behaves with air of superior  
Like: Menko  
Dislike: Seasons with falling leaves

Air Man is a bad tempered robot a lot of the time, and he was known for giving Team 5 a hard time back when they served Wily. Known for being one of the more powerful Wily robots, Air Man sometimes takes himself more seriously than he needs to. He's admired by the rest of his team. He's very focused on whatever task Wily gives him, and is proud of his master.

Air Man was built as a part of Team 2 in the effort for Wily to prove that his robots were better than Light's. Wily had mentioned making a wind based robot back when he and Dr. Light were working together, but Dr. Light didn't think it would be so useful. Hence Air Man. Air Man spent a lot of time at the robot museum, but since about MM7 he has been out of it, doing whatever miscellaneous chores he can to please Dr. Wily. He and Burst Man hanged out a lot, mostly because Burst Man was never that bothered by his arrogance, and they both enjoyed surfing. Air Man went back into the museum just before MM10, but was freed again during the events of Okkusenman. Right now, his fate is unknown.

FYI, Menko is a card game that involves trying to flip over your opponents cards, and this can be done by throwing your card in such a way that it blows the other up. Air Man was known to cheat at this.

=====Dr. Kenneth Imahara  
**"If I just hook up this one wire..."  
**Good point: works hard  
Bad point: works too hard  
Likes: learning  
Dislikes: interruptions

Imahara has a lot of trouble not being a workaholic. Ever since he was young he wanted to work on robots, and he was building rudimentary "robots" out of cardboard and remote controlled cars even when he was in kindergarten. During his high school years, it almost seemed that he would forget about his obsession as he learned to finally talk to people and have a social life. That, however, was before Dr. Light visited Japan. Dr. Light knew Kenneth's grandparents because they were some of his late wife's relatives, and he stopped by to have a social visit. Ken was like a crazed fanboy, and with Dr. Light's help he made it to college and became the famous scientist he is in Japan today.

Kenneth isn't married, but it's not something he's avoiding. It's just a conflict of interest right now. Normally he's a very happy guy, and despite being a workaholic, he does have plenty of friends. He is admired throughout all of Japan, and is considered a better robotics scientist than Dr. Cossack. He knows Rock and Roll well, but he has never met Blues. He trusts Bass because Dr. Light did, and wants to meet him. Bass was too busy at the party, however.


	5. The Wily Capsule

Dr. Wily never let prison bother him. Or he tried not to. It really wasn't so bad. Being a criminal mastermind, he always found ways to get extra blankets, keep people from wanting to fight him, and steer clear of the stranger convicts. To them he was an enigma, someone with far greater criminal success than they. He had nearly conquered the world ten times. What was a common bank robber or murderer to him? So long as Wily stayed away from the weight room, his power was never questioned. Best of all, with his age he didn't have to worry about dropping the soap.

And he was certainly never out of cigarettes. That morning he enjoyed a puff out with several of his closest (most manipulatible) convict friends out on top of the prison, where large barbed wire fences lined the edge of the large, rectangular roof. It was a lovely morning, and not even the several watchtowers that stuck out from the corners of the prison marred the beautiful view of the desert area. Several prisoners were on the roof, and many others were in the outer courtyard to enjoy the morning. Afternoons got warm in the area, but being still April, it wouldn't be too bad that day. Next month it would be another story.

For now, Albert would smoke. Several of his robots hadn't been found by the authorities, and surely they would be thinking of a way to get him out of prison. The prison guards liked to put him on the roof rather than out in the courtyard to make it harder for him to escape, but really all this did was make him more visible to his flying robots. He looked up often, pretending to keep an eye out on the towers. Really he was looking for Shade Man or someone else with wings or his Skull Capsule to come and get him. Usually he enjoyed being in prison as a break, but this time he was a little more impatient. He had a specific scheme in mind, and if he could only get it started, then the whole world would tremble again at the name of Albert A. Wily.

Of course, another prisoner had been the wrench in his plan. He frowned through the cigarette smoke at another prisoner that made his way out of the roof's door on the far side of their perch - most prisoners liked to stay as far away as they could from the stairway down back to their "home". Better to stay up there on the hard cement and breathe the fresh air as if they were free than back into the dank cells again. The same was certainly true of Nikola Cain.

Prison wasn't as fun for Dr. Cain. His pale, skinny cheeks had only grown all the more thin, and his scraggly beard on the edge of grey was no more than a scraggly spot sticking out of his chin. He hadn't completely recovered from his encounter with faulty instant death spike engineering, but he was getting there, and he bore his position in life the best that he could.

Wily only scowled with contempt, leading his prisoner compatriots to do the same. Nikola ignored them. He had to hold on to as much dignity as he could. He just strolled on by, going over to the barbed wire and giving the nearest guard tower a good look. He even turned back and grinned as Wily walked up.

"It's such a nice day out." Dr. Cain said with only the slightest touch of sarcasm. "I do like the prison system. On the outside any two people could be as different as rich and poor, powerful and weak. In here, it's all the same. It doesn't matter what you were on the outside."

"Idiot." Wily muttered. "You're completely wrong. In here there's just as much a divide. You and I are very different. I have a nice stay in the prison, and you're lucky if Big Eddie doesn't punch you in the back of the head today."

"If you say so." Not even Albert's commentary was enough to get Nikola down. Staring outwards for a moment, he suddenly turned his easy grin towards the greater mad scientist. "You must like it here in prison. You're so popular. It's quite the retirement home for you, old man."

"It'll be the retirement home _you_ have to look forward to." Wily snapped. "By the time they let you out you'll be halfway dead and headed for the hospital to die. Me, on the other hand, soon enough my robots will come and spring me out." Suddenly getting an idea, Wily changed his tone, catching himself. "You do have a lot of time left on your term, don't you? Heh, why don't you just work for me? I can have my robots get you out of here, then we can _really _make the world pay for what they've done to us."

Dr. Cain smiled pleasantly, even giving a slight laugh. "No thanks. You never really understood what I was trying to accomplish. I wasn't going to make the world pay. I wanted them to see the error of their ways, and how robotics has taken over their lives. Work makes the man, but robots take over too much these days. Ha, and I would never play second fiddle to one of the men most responsible for creating human dependancy on machines. Hell, you even got _me_ to build robots."

Albert stiffened his shoulders, forcing a smile and pretending that he was the one in control of the conversation. "Suit yourself! Just remember when my robots come that you could have been free. Enjoy your sentence, Cain."

Nikola laughed quietly, his relaxed grin growing along with his amusement. He just shook his head, disbelieving everything Wily said.

"Well, okay!" Dr. Cain managed. "I'll remember that."

"Ah, good, because here come my robots now!"

Wily pointed out into the distance to his left, and sure enough, several specimen of the Wily numbers readily appeared. Centaur Man was freezing the robots employed by the prison, and Blade Man beside him slashed his way through, leading the way for he and Centaur Man to enter the jailhouse. Prisoners shouted from the other side of the roof, and Wily went over to go and see more of his robots on the opposite side of the building. Slash Man thrashed all opposing him. He was being covered by Spark Man, who sent large orbs of electricity out at the guard towers. Knight Man and Yamato Man came from a third direction, and they fought back to back against security.

Once he noticed all of these, Wily didn't look for long. His gaze only went one direction: up. All of the fighting below didn't mean a thing, not to Wily. It was only a distraction so that he could reach his beloved Skull Capsule, the blue and grey flying saucer that had gotten out of more jams than he could remember. It was there, only it wasn't the only blue thing in the sky.

"Come on, Rush!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Keep an eye on Wily! The robot masters won't go anywhere without him!"

"Gah! Curse you, Mega Man!" Wily shook a fist in the direction of the blue bomber and Rush jet. "You'll never stop me from escaping! Not with the human guards in danger!"

"That's why I've got back up!" Rock shouted back. _" - Team 5! Teleport! - "_

_" - Napalm Man, on the way! - "_

_" - Charge Man, coming through! - "_

_" - Stone Man is here! - "_

_" - Gyro Man, coming in on your position, Rock. - "_

The fight immediately switched. Wily's robots no longer had the advantage. Napalm Man shot his torpedoes at Centaur Man, enabling the security robots to shake off his stun technique and start taking down Blade Man. On his side of things, Slash Man couldn't enjoy slashing at the guards in his way, as it was just so hard to swipe at the stones that made up Stone Man. He found himself surrounded by all the bricks around himself.

"Raaugh!" Slash Man roared. "This guy is a pain! Spark Man, get him!"

"I'm trying..." Spark Man waved his arm spikes around, nervously trying to get a shot in. "I can't hit him without hitting you!"

Things weren't looking all that great for the Team 6 warriors either. Yamato Man shot his spear tips at Charge Man, but every time he did Charge Man just got out of the way. Somehow, every time Knight Man wanted to throw his mace, the orange Team 5 robot knew to turn red and shoot coal.

"You'll die if you interfere, Mega Man!"

Cloud Man appeared from behind the Skull Capsule, which floated in the air safely out of weapons range of the Light-bot. Unfortunately for the bomber, Cloud Man's range was greater than his. Storms of electricity formed around him, and the guards on the roof quickly started ushering in the prisoners. It wasn't long before the lightning zapped down, slamming right into Rock only just after his ultimate armor had equipped.

"I've got it!"

Gyro Man flew in, shooting his mini-propellers out at Cloud Man. The two began to fight it out, and Gyro Man was hard pressed to dodge the storms of electricity that ran through the air. However, the green robot was determined to prove himself.

"You're not going to take Wily anywhere!"

"Oh yeah, traitor?" Cloud Man lifted his hands again. "I can do whatever I want, including kill you!"

With the many robot masters fighting each other, Mega Man was able to recover. His ultra armor had done a good job of saving him from the lightning itself, but he could only cringe at the damage done when he slammed into the top of the prison. Mega Man was up on his feet again in time to hear Gyro Man challenge the Team 7 electrical robot, so he let the robot masters duke it out, hoping that Napalm Man didn't set anything important on fire.

Fortunately, Wily hadn't gotten far. One of the prison guards had him by the arms, and despite the tenacious man's wild clobbering, the guard managed to hold on and direct him toward the stairs. Other prisoners were hurrying down, but still some stayed up to try and watch the interesting fight around them. The guards were going to have a hard time getting all of the men to

"Please sir," Mega Man approached. "Let me have Dr. Wily. I have orders to take him to another maximum security prison."

"Right." the heavily armored man nodded. "I'll bring him to solitary confinement until you're done up here."

"Thanks! Rush, you stay with Wily and guard him."

"Keep your stupid dog away from me!" Wily cringed, trying to get away from the little red robot dog. He kicked at Rush, but the brave dog just growled sternly, barking at him with a doggy lecture.

With that, Mega Man turned and considered his next move. It would probably be for the best to help Gyro Man, since the lookout towers were already down, leaving him with no help against Cloud Man. The guards were doing a good job of hauling away the prisoners inside (he could hear the intercoms telling everyone to head for the basements), and so he figured that the main worry was making sure that the Skull Capsule didn't get away.

Surprisingly, it wasn't even trying. In fact, the blue and grey vessel was headed downwards, going closer to the top of the prison. Rock prepared to fire his charged shot, wondering if the capsule had some kind of weapons. The propulsion system appeared to work beneath the ship, so that was where Mega Man aimed. He fired off his most powerful burst of energy at the thing. The impact nearly shot the capsule out of control, but it still managed to keep upright.

Without warning, the capsule opened. Out came the tackiest robot Mega Man had ever seen. Shade Man's wings lowered Air Man's torso and random limbs from other robot masters to Mega Man's level. Before Mega Man could fire, the robot nimbly flung and extended its right arm - Clown Man's right arm - over at Mega Man. The bomber jumped out of the way. The arm extended past him, slamming into the door just as Wily was about to be hauled through it.

"Ha, ha! Good job...er...whoever you are!" Wily laughed as he shot an elbow up at the guard's nose and kicked at Rush again. "Now let's get going!"

It wasn't that simple. Mega Man wasn't the world's robot champion for nothing. The schizoid robot took several blasts to the chest, knocking it back. This didn't stop it from shooting Mega Man right back with his left arm, Fire Man's. Three red flames slammed into Mega Man's armor, damaging his internal wiring and taking his charge down. Rock only just managed to stay on his feet

_Urgh! I'm going to have to get closer to fight this guy, but Clown Man's arm...I really hope he can't do thunder claw...wait..._

The robot didn't yell out "thunder claw!" the same way Clown Man used to, but the computerish squeals that came from Turbo Man's head were three sylables in the exact same pattern as the outcry. Realizing at the last moment that this was an advantage, Mega Man jumped upward into the air and out of reach of the metal hands that reached out from the cement under him. He landed just behind the baddie and let loose a plasma shot.

The strange robot collapsed, but he was by no means down. Clown Man's arm smacked at Mega Man, and this allowed the stranger time to get up and finally use those propellor blades in his chest. Mega Man flew backwards, doing his best to dodge the tornadoes shooting out at him.

"Frantic Man!" Our little hero recognised this as Yamato Man's voice. "Let's go!"

Mega Man looked up to see that the Skull Capsule was departing, and had already made it a long distance out into the sky. The schizoid robot, apparently Frantic Man, dove off the edge of the building, letting his large, purple wings carry him off and away. The galloping hooves of Centaur Man could be heard in the distance, and the sounds of fighting began to quiet down.

All wasn't lost. Mega Man turned just in time to see an angry and red-faced mad scientist with steam nearly pouring out of his ears. Dr. Wily's hands balled up into tight fists, and he lifted one in the direction of the capsule.

"You forgot _me_, you idiots!" Wily screamed. "Get back down here!"

"Whoo, that was close! I'm going to have to come up with a better strategy for fighting Frantic Man."

Mega Man got to his feet and headed for Wily, glancing around as he did. The prison workers seemed to have everything well under control as far as prisoners went. Names rattled off as the guards ordered all prisoners still on the roof (thankfully none of them had been hurt in the fight) to line up. Mega Man stared at each one as they went in single file in front of the door. He didn't recognise any of them. It ocurred to him that Dr. Nikola Cain was kept at the same prison. For now Mega Man just went to the guards holding his oldest enemy.

"You've had your fun, doctor. It's time for you to be transferred. Rush, convert to jet mode."

"Roof, roof!"

"I am not going anywhere with you." Wily let all of his disgust pour out of his bitter voice, and he shoved a finger at Rock. "You stopped my escape!"

"I know, and I have the feeling I'm going to be doing so again." Mega Man folded his arms. "So why don't you just give up and tell me exactly what you're planning now? It'll save all of us a lot of trouble."

"PLANS? How can I have any plans when my robots forgot about me?"

It was an odd point. Usually Wily's robots were generally as fanatic as he, so how could they leave him behind? It just made no sense. Mega Man let the prison guards try to settle the mad scientist down (Lord knew _he_ wasn't any good at it), as he took a look around. Most of the prisoners had made it below and off of the roof, but a few lingered. A some of them spoke to each other, some stared at the bomber with wonder, and others, amused, just watched the guards below as they scattered about trying to restore the sanctity of the prison.

The bomber got a sinking feeling. _" - Team 5, report in. How are things? - "_

_" - I've got Knight Man! - " _Charge Man said. _" - Yamato Man got away. I'd come up there, but I'm rounding up some stray prisoners. Be right up. - "_

Stone Man did teleport, and his orange teleport beam landed just next to Mega Man. He stood up, letting his stones waver and adjust properly into place. Teleporting was always weird for him. A purple teleport beam hit the ceiling beside him as he spoke in his deep, goofy voice.

"I got Spark Man. I thought I had Slash Man but I can't find where his body is. I think he may have escaped."

"I know Centaur Man made it out." Napalm Man sighed. "Blade Man is really irritating. It's really hard to shoot a close range fighter. Sorry, Rock."

"It's okay, Wily didn't escape." Mega Man pointed over at the guards holding him. "So I'd say it's a successful mission. We'll have to bring the defeated robots back to my lab, but first everyone is going to come with me to transfer Dr. Wily to the other facility, right?"

"Okay." Stone Man said. "We'll make sure he stays caught."

Napalm Man glanced over at his old master, feeling a little guilty. It didn't help that the bushy-haired scientist was glaring at him in shame. Napalm Man forced himself to turn away and focus. Charge Man's teleport beam and Gyro Man's flight downwards helped distract him.

"Well..." an injured Gyro Man proudly clung to his nearly torn off arm. "It was a hard fight, but I got Cloud Man. I think I got some coordinates on where the Skull Capsule might have gone, but I'm not sure. That weird guy got away on it."

"His name is Frantic Man." Mega Man said. "Or that's what Yamato Man called him. Sorry I couldn't help you up there."

"It's alright. I'll be fine." Gyro Man only seemed to revel in each of his scorch marks, dents and glitches. "We fighters can't complain about a few scratches."

Mega Man smiled. He appreciated that Gyro Man was trying as hard as he could to be a good guy. "Okay, so we'll try and settle things here first before we leave. Charge Man, you and Napalm gather up the fallen robot Masters. Stone Man, go to the warden and ask what you can do to make sure the prisoners are all accounted for. Gyro Man, teleport back to the lab and tell them what happened. Have them do something about your arm before you come with us on the escort mission." Mega Man knew that excluding the green flyer would only hurt his confidence. "And I'll - "

All of a sudden, Mega Man and allies froze.

_" - Hey Hank, you got Cain up there? - " _A human voice called out over the radio attached to another guard's belt. _" - He's nowhere to be found down here. - "_

The guards and Dr Wily too all froze just the same. Wily's face was taught and bitter as the armed men around him took the opportunity to pull his arms behind his back - he was very much a wiry man, and now that he had gotten over the initial shock, he was struggling to get free all the worse.

"Hey look!" One of the larger prisoners pointed upwards. "That flying saucer is still up there!"

All gazes went to the sky, where indeed one could barely see the grey speck against the few clouds. One moment later, a burst of sparks expanded in the air, and the giant gold letters that formed were perfectly visible even in the daytime. They read "SO SORRY WILY", floating there for several seconds as the Skull Capsule departed out of sight.

"I'm going to kill him!" Wily screamed, instantly turning his pasty skin a deep and furious red. "Cain, you're going to pay for this!"

The guard named Hank sighed. "Get him out of here. He needs to cool off."

"Yeah, I kinda don't blame him."

The others began pushing him to the door, opening it and hustling the scientist through. The sooner they got Wily inside the sooner that the furious screaming would stop. All of the prisoners sighed with relief as the wild-haired Wily disappeared out of sight. Mega Man was far from relieved. He got his sensors tracking, and his teeth set his edge as he stared up.

"So what do we do now?" Gyro Man asked. "Where do we start?"

"All Cain's known haunts." Mega Man said, turning to his allies. "Ask his family, ask old cohorts, anything we can do. The Skull Capsule is so hard to scan for that I'm not sure if it's worth it - we're better off calling for NASA to check the satellites. If he was able to plan this escape out then he'll put his plan into action soon. We'll have to make sure that Monstropolis is ready. Don't give up. We're going to find him."

Mega Man stood there in his trademark pose: one arm over his heart, and an optimistic look outward. He looked friggin' precious. However, he had chosen his fellow fighters well. Stone Man lifted both fights in the air in a terrifying pose. Charge Man lifted a fist of his own upwards, and Gyro Man was likewise determined. Nothing ever got Napalm Man down for too long either.

"Yeah, we've got this!" Napalm Man exclaimed with both bomb shooters in the air. "Cain won't know what hit him!"

-t-

Dr. Nikola Cain was not a robotics technician. He was an excellent programmer, and any one of his viruses was at least ten times as potent as any other violent program roaming around on the internet. That, however, did not stop him from having a dark grudge against robots and technology. Too many humans lived lives dependant on this machines, expecting robots to do what they would not.

Cain created his eight robot masters, expecting them to teach the world a thing or two about robotic dependancy - namely that it was wrong. Epic Man was his strongest robot master, deadly with torpedoes and EMP waves. Algorthym Man was a clever trickster who could plant viruses on unsuspecting creations of other scientists. Echelon Man's echelon heatshock was a terrifyingly powerful weapon, and Emit Man's defensive shields and flying blade bombs made him a tough combatant. Psycho Man had powerful electric shocks, as well as a little clown mech that his arms could turn into at will. Bullet Man was never short on ammunition and anger, and Sight Man was a stealthy and powerful ninja-bot (despite the fact he looked like a giant metal ant).

The last and definitely the least of these was Signal Man. Dr. Cain essentially threw him together because he wanted to round out the number of robot masters he had created. Signal Man, unlike the others, had no area of expertise. He was a fighter of mediocre offense and laughable defense, built out of old car engines and traffic lights. His parts were so random he looked like he'd been playing around with Dust Man's trash compactor.

Out of all Dr. Cain's robot masters, he had been the first to fall. Crystal Bot encountered this robot at the very beginning of Dr. Cain's scheme, and after a short fight Bass intervened and finished him off. While his power had been stolen by Bass, Signal Man's body was never afterwards touched. With the arrival of Mega Man, no one had ever bothered to check and make sure Signal Man was utterly destroyed. And so, shortly after everyone had departed, Signal Man's body was carried off by his robot master siblings and repaired. Signal Man didn't fight the good guys again. His next roles in the scheme were background, bit parts. All of his siblings were destroyed and his creator was arrested, leaving Signal Man abandoned and alone.

This didn't bother him. In fact, he was quite grateful. Total loyalty to his master urged him on, and he knew that one day he would find a way to free his master from prison. That day wouldn't take long to come. In fact, only a month after his master was apprehended, Signal Man found the resources to rebuild an army for Dr. Cain. In the past months he made real progress. That was why he was in the old fortress. It was an old Wily castle, one that had been long ago built, destroyed, searched, and abandoned.

Surprisingly, most of the walls had survived. The roof of the castle was long gone, and the structure had the decrepit appearance of being able to fall over at any time. The metal structure groaned in the wind, and it felt as if one could hear the rust scraping and eating into the old beast of a structure.

It was the perfect place for Signal Man to hide. The awkward robot seemed right at home in the junky structure; the only part of his body that didn't make him seem like a pile of walking metal garbage was his light up face, with red eyes, a yellow nose, and green teeth. Even the face didn't help that much. What really made Signal Man look impressive was what he had done with the place. As it was, he had set up his operations the former large-lab, a place originally meant for building the larger mechaniloids Wily had invented for his sixth misadventure.

Now it had become a laboratory for Signal Man. Skeletal structures for seven more robots were lined against the wall, one of them very similar to a metal ant. Six piles of armor that were sorted out by color lay strewn out on the floor in front of each metal man. Signal Man gleefully lay the seventh armor in front of the last, then clapped his hands with a loud, ringing smack.

"My brothers will be complete soon." he merrily exclaimed. "It's a good thing the police don't know of that chip in my master's brain. It makes things that much easier to recieve the plans for rebuilding them. Using what's left of my master's secret bank accounts and the nice little area here, I'll have his army up and running again! It's even handier that my master sent me a brand new virus to use at my leisure! Isn't this quite amusing, Frantic Man?"

He turned to the other robot present, a horrifying mish-mash of villainous robots originally made by Dr. Albert Wily. The chest was Air Man's, with the propellor blade still in place. Out of the back jutted Shade Man's wings. The legs were not immediately recognisable, but if one were to ask Signal Man, he would reply that they were Sheep Man's - a robot would need lightweight legs to make up for Air Man's heavy body and still be able to fly. One arm was clearly Fire Man's, and the other was Clown Man's. In short, eww.

Topping everything off was Turbo Man's head. This left him without expressions, so if he was either agreeing or disagreeing with Signal Man, there would be no way for someone watching to be able to tell. Even if you were listening, you would still remain confused. His speech was not in words, but an electrical code. All that was audible were some humming, twirping click sounds. Whatever he had said, apparently it amused Signal Man.

The Cain-bot grinned at his construction. "Haha! So docile now, aren't you? Quite compliant. The master will be pleased, and we'll be able to carry out his plans soon. He'll be so proud once he gets here! I'm so glad he went to the hotel to clean up first. We have more time to get ready! Now help me install this armor. I'll need you to fix up Epic Man first, then Echelon Man. I've got fun of my own to make this lab more suitable! See to it that you hurry, and be sure to do a good job. Master would not like it if you slacked, and any funny business will fry your brain."

The threat didn't seem to affect Frantic Man any, one way or another. He merely walked away to obey his order. The decrepit state of the repair tables forced him to settle down on the floor. Frantic Man pulled one of the skeletal frames down to the dirty tiles and began sorting the pieces of the midnight blue armor that Epic Man wore. Signal Man watched his slave's careful and dedicated work with eager glee.

Rubbing his hands together one final time, Signal Man promptly headed for the huge gap in the wall that used to be a door. He wasn't worried that Frantic Man would betray him or try to harm his brothers. Each bit of the odd and mismatched robot's CPU was protected and double protected from that tricky little thing called free will. Frantic Man was nothing more than an obedient little assistant for the tackiest of the Cain creations.

-t-

Proto Man didn't like this idea. He was never comfortable removing his helmet and scarf. That was the trouble of wearing a disguise all the time: it only works if no one is familiar with it. That and going without proved a better disguise. He did it only very occasionally, and usually only in front of people that didn't know him well as Proto Man.

There were plenty of such people in the Robotics Ethics Agency. Proto Man had spied on the place several times already, but he had never actually gone far within the building. It was actually very nice, or so implied the dark crimson carpets with antique trim, the large halls lit by chandelliers, and the various humans going about their business in professional attire.

Blues hated the Agency. Usually the only robots in there were cleaner mechaniloids, little robots that did little more than dust, vacuum, or make coffee. Over the years Proto Man had gained a tolerance for the status of robots, but it still made him uncomfortable to dodge the little 'bots that busily cleaned up someone's coffee stain on the floor.

He glanced at a window in a door. That hall led to the filing station, but Proto Man concentrated on his own reflection. He had to make sure that he looked like a normal, brave robot soul rather than a guilty one. The Light-bot was very practiced in manipulating his expressions, but it was always good to keep up the work. This was one of his riskier plans, and if anything went wrong here, then it wasn't likely he would make it out. As fancy as the REA building was, the place had the best security imaginable. It was as if all new technologies went first to this agency.

And so the robot walked forward. The halls in the place were very organized, so it wasn't hard for someone like Proto Man to find his way around. It wasn't long before he was standing before the robotics status secretary. The prim and proper woman was still speaking into her headset, but she nodded pleasantly at Proto Man to indicate she would be with him soon. Blues returned the nod, patiently standing there with his hands together. No one who looked at him would be able to tell that he felt anything but patient.

"Hi there." the elegant brunette pulled up the microphone on her headset just enough to speak to Proto Man. "Name and serial number, please."

"I'm Break Man, RLN-024." Blues said (he had made up the number a long time ago). "I'm one of the robots assigned to find Dr. Nikola Cain, and I'm here to receive my mission report."

"Ah, yes..." The young lady searched around her papers, indicating that she knew nothing. Anyone with the proper list would be able to tell that "Break Man" wasn't assigned to anything. "You need to go to room 124, right down the hall there."

She pointed to the hall beyond her desk, where the hallway branched to the left. Blues nodded again as the woman went back to her work. She believed him, just like any of the other humans Proto Man came across. It had been years since the last person suspected that Break Man wasn't exactly who he said he was. But that was done, so Proto Man just passed by the desk and turned left. The room wasn't hard to find, and the foggy glass in this door bore the name Officer Clancy Robbins, a name Proto Man knew from several documents he had stolen over the years. Robbins was due for retirement in two years.

Break Man opened the door to find an older man sitting at a desk, quite absorbed in the paperwork and electronic data pad before him. His wrinkled hand brushed back the remnants of his balding white hair, and he tapped the cluster of papers in his hands on the surface of the desk to make sure they were in order. Only then did he notice that there was a robot in his office.

"Oh? Did someone send you to me?"

"Actually, I'm here for the search assignment against Dr. Cain." Proto Man replied. "I was ordered on the search."

"A bit late for that, aren't you? All the other robots are on their way checking the various leads."

"I had to finish up an assignment in Finland." Proto Man replied simply. "It took a little longer than expected."

The older man nodded, glancing down at his data pad for a moment. Proto Man found himself thinking the words "don't check the robotic assignments list" over and over again, as if by wishing he could somehow command the human to subconciously forget about it. But for whatever reason, Mr. Robbins didn't check. He just handed Proto Man a small disc. Proto Man inserted it into his neck, discovering that it was all the specific data pertaining to the escape and to the schemes of Dr. Cain.

"With a record like this," Proto Man said. "I would be surprised if Cain picked anywhere besides Monstropolis to strike."

Clancy nodded. "Yeah, a lot of people feel that way, but we're keeping an eye out for Japan just in case. Monstropolis may be the capital of robotics, but the Japanese aren't that far behind. Cain's anti-robotic notions...well, he's a little unpredictable at this point. All the other robots have their assignments by now, so I'm going to have to send you off to do some scans of the areas around Monstropolis. People have been known to have all kinds of computer hideouts in that region, so just make sure none of them are Cain's. Any action in Monstropolis, and you head straight there, alright?"

"Got it."

Proto Man copied the disc's contents onto his CPU, then handed the disc back to the human. He considered actually doing the mission for the agency this time, as it couldn't hurt to take a look. The work would take his mind off of other things that he needed the distraction from, and any chance he had to help Mega Man he would take. For now his work was done: he had the data he needed to figure out the situation and find a way to best help his brother. Proto Man turned to leave.

_Only one thing I need to check on now...Zero..._

The door to the office opened, and without so much as a knock a tall Irish man with black hair (only the slightest hints of grey showed) sauntered into the room and made his salutations.

"Hey, Clance. You've got that data for me, right? If you want that bill you like so much to pass in the Senate, then I'm sure you do! Oh hey, you've got a robot here, I see. What's your name, champ?"

It took every bit of Proto Man's will power to keep from screaming in frustration right then and there. Things had gone off without so much as a hitch, and in came Senator Harry Briggs, the one man still alive that would actually recognise Proto Man without his helmet on. Briggs' cheeky grin almost made it perfectly clear that he already knew Proto Man's name, and was jolly well pleased that he did. Robbins didn't seem to notice or else to care about the proud smile, so once Proto Man had recovered himself (it took only seconds and showed nothing on his face) he answered the politician with a just barely polite and definitely firm tone.

"I'm Break Man."

"Break Man? Glad to meet you!" Harry snatched up his hand and shook it firmly. "The name is Harry Briggs. I'm sure I've never seen you around here before! Nope! Definitely not! I suppose these guys keep you busy."

"Yes, very busy." Proto Man was curt as he pulled his hand out of the Senator's. "And I'm afraid that means I have to go now. Don't let me keep you from your business with Officer Robbins. Good afternoon."

Blues' mild show of contempt only further amused Briggs. "Ha ha, get going, then! Goodbye! So Clancy, what've you got for me that can convince 99 cranky politicians to increase federal funding for the space programs?"

Proto Man hurried out of the room, his hatred for Briggs only growing worse as he speedily went for the nearest exit. Briggs had been one of the federal agents assigned to keep an eye on Dr. Light's projects around the time that Proto Man was first built. Ever since, Harry had felt himself to be some sort of uncle or distant relative, despite the fact that Proto Man had never liked him, not even in the robot's earlier, naiive days. But surely even Harry had heard what he had done.

He shifted his fingers, hearing a crackle. Glancing down, Blues saw that he was holding a slip of paper folded a couple of times. Refusing to give into his curiousity too soon, Proto Man stealthily headed for the roof of the building before opening it up and taking a look.

"Proto Man -

Don't trust Bass.

He's been assigned to capture you.

Sincerely,

Your Uncle Harry."

Proto Man crumpled up the paper in his fist, and his lips were just as crumpled with disgust. Was this Briggs' idea of being sneaky? Even worse was the notion of someone he knew actually having a clue to what his past really had been like. And of course the authorities wouldn't know his side of the issue.

_Do I really have a side? _Proto Man thought dully. _This must mean Harry knows...it doesn't seem to bother him at all._

Blues had never cared about Briggs' opinion, and he wasn't going to start. On the other hand, it felt a little strange for Bass to know. As much as he felt himself as a protector of his brother, Proto Man had at times helped Bass in similar ways. Now whatever image of Proto Man Bass had in his mind was surely shattered. Proto Man wasn't sure how comfortable he was with Bass knowing. He thought with dread how terrible it would be if the dark robot decided he was going to share all of this with Mega Man.

_Looks like I won't be doing that assignment after all. Bass might know, but he doesn't understand..._

The loner robot rechecked the data he had gained. Part of it detailed the activity of Wily-bots in Russia, namely their brief appearance and mysterious destruction. Proto Man briefly let it cross his mind that Robbins or someone had left that information on the disc on purpose, as if to lure him to where Bass could catch him. That would make Harry's appearance in a place he didn't work a little more understandible.

_It doesn't matter anyway. I have to know that Zero is being dealt with. Now that Mega Man has to handle Dr. Cain, I can't just leave this to Bass. _Proto Man managed a bit of a smile, just the slightest hint. _Thanks, Harry._

\\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- I'd like to point out that Dr. Cain is 44 right at this point in time. His family's hair always got grey early.

Character profiles!

=====Shade Man

**"You are history!"**  
Good point: Dandy  
Bad point: Lazy employees  
Like: Tomato juice  
Dislike: Garlic toast

Japanese CD data:

Good point: Dandy  
Bad point: Always with microphone  
Like: Tomato juice  
Dislike: Garlic

Shade Man is Dr. Wily's favorite Team 7 robot. Wily was always a little disappointed with Team 7. Because he was arrested before 4 of the robots were done, he felt like Team 7 could have been stronger than they were. Shade Man he was definitely pleased with, and unlike the other three robots that you fight after the first four, he was actually complete at the time of MM7. When Wily was arrested, Shade Man had been found and was reprogrammed by the authorities to become the host of a haunted house at a carnival. Wily recaptured him during MM7.

Shade Man is debonair, a great servant to Wily, and just a generally creepy guy. Creepy in a good way. Shade Man can be very nice at times, and prefers being a good host to being evil sometimes. He ran the best darn haunted house there was in Monstropolis. Secretly he always wanted to return to doing that, but over the years he just ended up haunting Skull Castles. During MM10 he was captured and put into the robot museum, where he stayed until the events of Okkusenman. And now he's a part of Frantic Man. Yeah. Poor guy.

=====Slash Man

**"Claw me, and I'll claw thee."**  
Good point: Lean and wild  
Bad point: Sticky-fingered  
Like: Vegetables  
Dislike: Nail-clipper

Japanese CD data:

Good point: Quick at work  
Bad point: Super wild

Slash Man is a violent robot, and was one of the tougher of MM7. Wily liked him alright, but Slash Man didn't get the chance to rampage as much as he wanted because he was finished late. As a result, post MM7 he ended up going on a rampage to destroy to his heart's content. Needless to say, he didn't get to do very much before he was caught and shoved into the museum. He spent the entire time from then on until Okkusenman in the robot museum, and after that he barely got to do anything before the last Wily castle was destroyed. He was badly injured by Mega Man at that point, but was still able to get away. Apparently now he decided he wanted to fight with prison guards...


	6. Consequences for Proto Man

Bass felt weird, and he wasn't sure why. This had nothing to do with the wide piles of snow he had to traverse in order to figure out where Zero was. He and Treble had spread out across the snowscape, which thankfully had since settled from the snowstorm. There was nothing. For all the excitement over finding Cut, Sword, and Gemini Man, there was nothing else out there. His wide sweeper scanners had picked up nothing thus far, and any attempt to dig into the frozen tundra had proved as useless as bringing down a brick wall with a toothpick. If Cut Man had known where to find Zero, then he hadn't been close to it.

No, that wasn't what made things so weird for Bass. He knew he was getting closer to his goal, and he knew that soon he would be able to fight Zero. The real thing bothering him was Proto Man. Bass had never been friends with the secretive robot (Bass didn't bother to realize that he didn't really have that many friends at all), and his first memory of Blues was seeing him escape from Slash Man. The dark robot had hardly known him and was surprised that Blues had given him a self-righteous speech after King had been defeated. The red robot had snuck into Wily's fortress and destroyed plans for a second King, which was probably the only reason why Bass hadn't obeyed Wily and just offed Proto Man as he had been told. That and he wasn't feeling obedient to Wily at the time - who would after Wily attempted to kill them?

The snow was getting deeper, and Bass began to wish that he had some sort of fire weapon he would equip.

_Stupid laws..._

There was nothing to be done for it. Hot plasma worked pretty well, and besides that, the snow would leave plenty of tracks for him to trace. If this wasn't the area that Zero was in, then Bass planned on just grabbing Treble and doing another fly-over of the area. They'd be sure to find something in all that mess.

For the time being, Bass would be alone with his thoughts. Proto Man would be sure to show up at any point. For Bass' part, he wasn't particularly grateful that Proto Man had destroyed King II's plans. Forte would have done it himself if he had the chance. Nor did he care a thing about Proto Man's assistance at any point. Proto Man could go protect his stupid little brother for all he cared. _He _didn't need Proto Man's help. Only when Proto Man had shown up at the hospital to see Dr. Light before he died did Bass' opinion of him rise a little. Other than that, Blues was nothing more than a self-righteous, secretive, weak and annoying robot.

So why did he feel strange about arresting him? Despite everything, something about arresting Proto Man seemed plain wrong. Something about it felt off. Hadn't he saved lots of people? Fought against Team 10? Saved the daughter of Russia's greatest mind? Or was none of that good enough to make up for all Blues' sins? It was a question above what Bass knew.

Bass still didn't believe that Proto Man had killed anyone. It was too far out of character. Then again, Proto Man was far older than him, and Bass knew very little about Blues' early life. The dark robot, however, had seen Leila's testimony to the robotics ethics agency on the zip drive Reyes had given him. Bass had never been a good one to be comfortable with grief, and this was the absolute worst he had ever seen. He only barely managed to finish and hear what Leila had said: Proto Man confessed to killing her father, and she ran from him, immediately insisting on police presense. There it was, the brutal, devastating testimony.

Bass shook his head, growling a little as he kept on trudging through the drifts. He wished the search for Zero didn't have to be so careful. Passing by him on accident was Bass' worst nightmare, and he couldn't allow that to happen. The dark robot glanced upwards. He seemed to be in some wide depression in the land, one that looked like a giant bowl with all the snow around. His scans showed nothing, so he figured he would walk around it and find a more likely area for his "little brother" to be hidden.

_" - Did you find him yet? - "_

Bass stood still a moment, checking his sensors. He could hardly believe his scans: it was indeed Proto Man. He had to proceed cautiously. And that meant keeping Blues talking.

_" - Not yet. I've got the area narrowed down, so I'll be surprised if I don't find him this week. - "_

_" - Not counting Wily-bot activity that may lead the way. - "_

_" - Yeah. - "_

There was silence on the line for a minute. Bass wasn't sure what to say. Was Proto Man trying to help or trying to figure out what he knew? Only one way to find out.

_" - I've been hearing a lot of rumors about you lately. - " _Bass mentioned. _" - They sound pretty bad. - "_

It took Proto Man a minute to respond, but he did answer eventually. _" - I know you've been assigned to look for me, Bass. - "_

_" - And if you come right where I am, you're really easy to find. I thought I'd find Zero first. What are you doing here, besides delaying me? - "_

_" - Is there anything that can get you to stop? You must have leaked out that information about Wily-bots in this region just to get me to show up here. - "_

_" - No, but I'm sure some REA guy did. If you know, why are you here? - "_

_" - ...I just...I just wanted to ask you not to tell Rock about me. - "_

Did Proto Man really think that he could just ask him to do anything? Bass almost laughed, only he wasn't really in the mood for it. Nor was he really in the mood to spill the beans to Mega Man. Watching Mega Man learn something like that wouldn't be funny. It would just be annoying, and he didn't feel like putting up with something like that. Watching Leila's reaction to everything had been bad enough.

_" - Eh, the ethics agent doesn't want me to say anything anyway. He thinks Rock would try to hide you or something. You don't mean to say that there's actually some truth to all the crap these idiots have been telling me? - "_

Proto Man winced. He was a little surprised at Bass' sarcasm. It was actually nice to know that someone, if only the abrasive Forte, didn't believe in the accusations. It would be even nicer if...

Proto Man sighed and lowered his head. He had to focus. He only wanted to talk to Bass and get him to understand what was going on. The dark robot cared about being respected by the authorities, so even if Bass sympathized (Bass was capable of sympathy?) he would likely still arrest him and turn him over to the government. America wasn't even the only problem. How many countries had he spied on over the years? Stolen technology and information from? Half of Europe was furious at him.

Getting caught meant no end of trouble. So that was why he was standing with his back to a cliff, facing an outwards field of snow. Bass wouldn't be able to easily sneak up on him from that position, and since Proto Man had teleported in there would be no footprints to tell his tracker where he was.

_" - There's no point in hiding it from you. I killed Richard Copenhagen. - "_

There it was, out there in the air and completely unretractible. The windy air swooshed about, blowing at the snow and causing a bit of the freshest of it to drift a bit in the air. It was the only sound to be heard, as for a moment the airways were completely silent.

_" - ...So, you're some impostor and not the real Proto Man, huh? - "_

Proto Man was almost amused enough to think about smiling. _" - I appreciate your faith in me, but that faith is misplaced. - "_

_" - Faith? Crap, I just didn't expect a Light-bot to kill people. - "_

While usually Blues' wit was more of a contender versus Bass, but his heart wasn't in it. It was true that a Light-bot could hardly be expected to have the life that he'd had, with all of the dark secrets he refused to tell anyone. Roll constantly asked him questions when he saw her, innocently asking for stories and for details of what other countries are like. Of course the worst story had happened in his country of origin. And of course Bass would ask.

_" - Hey, I've got to know. Why were you obeying Wily anyway? I was built by the guy and I never listened to him. - "_

_" - It's more complicated than you think. - " _Proto Man began to feel a little stupid as he answered. _" - When I left Dr. Light, I didn't know anything. I suppose I was then like Rock is now...naiive. Wily seemed more worldly and savvy than Dr. Light by comparison. I thought I could trust him. He did help with my power core. Over time I realized he was, well, as I would have put it then, 'just as bad as every other human'. I felt that robots were just a new weapon in the wars between humans. - "_

Bass snorted. _" - How come every time I talk to you I get the feeling you don't know anything about reality? - "_

_" - Because you're incapable of understanding other people's perspectives. - " _Blues said, his voice tightening at the insult. _" - Wily was a lot more patient and believable in those days. He only got more insane as the years passed. - "_

_" - Eh, okay, I'll buy that. So why were you helping him steal Gamma if he'd already tried to take over the world twice? - "_

Proto Man sighed. _" - I was working for him before then. Mostly my part involved spying so that Wily could plan his schemes. I stopped believing in him when Team 2 was built, but...I didn't have anywhere else to go for maintenance...and for friendship. Wily must have though my work was worth stringing me along for. He would actually listen to my pathetic ranting. I thought I knew everything then. After the Gamma incident, he stopped pretending. He figured that because I would never be allowed to live in normal society that I was stuck working for him. If it weren't for Rock, then I would have believed him. Rock...there was I time when I thought he was nothing more than a gun - a tool for weak humans. He's much more than that. - "_

Blues clammed up, assuming correctly that Bass didn't want to hear a story of brotherly love. Bass continued as if the topic hadn't been brought up. _" - I assume Dr. Light put a 'killing humans is bad' program in your head when he built you. What changed your mind? - "_

_" - Let me make this clear, Bass. - " _Proto Man's vocal actuators tightened. _" - I always believed that killing was wrong. - "_

_" - Okay, then why did you do it? - "_

_" - I...I thought... - " _he ran through all of the worthless reasons he had given himself those years ago to somehow make it all better. To his older eyes they seemed even more useless. He could only be honest. _" - At the time, I wasn't a fan of...alright, I just plain despised humans. I didn't like the idea of one powerful robot like Gamma deciding the course of the world. With Dr. Wily stealing it, everyone would see how foolish it was to have such a powerful thing. I told Wily where Gamma was located, but I didn't expect Wily to send me after it. I actually thought I was doing the right thing by capturing Gamma. Richard...his job was to stop me... - "_

Proto Man wouldn't go on. He had never liked being questioned, because with every question he was asked, he knew that the truth would come out and reveal exactly how stupid he had been. He always enjoyed being smarter and knowing more secrets. It was all in the effort to cover up all his earlier naiivety so that he would be knowledgable and never have to repeat his past sins.

In his ignorance he had shot Copenhagen. This was without the excuse that he had been reprogrammed by Wily, or that Richard was already badly injured and he was putting the human out of his misery, or that being killed by Hard or Shadow Man was worse, or even the pitiful excuse that Richard was going to kill him first. Oh no, he had gone in and shot the man just as Wily had told him, without any significant hesitation. All those pretentious things he used to believe in led him astray, and he had followed along with them just like a stupid donkey being led by a fool.

_" - Okay, so you thought you were justified in shooting him because a world where Gamma exists would be bad. - " _Bass finished for him. _" - That sounds...sort of logical... - "_

Proto Man sighed. It was every bit as stupid as Bass' sarcasm put it. _" - I didn't want Richard to die. He...wasn't dead immediately. He could have lived...if only...I signalled an ambulance, but Shadow Man attacked it, and the emergency workers barely got out of there alive. Richard was found too late. I went to Dr. Wily to talk about it. All I wanted was for Wily to somehow say that it was worth it, that something genuinely good came out of everything that happened. I should have known he would only make it worse. Wily said things so horrible...after that, I knew I was being used...I was so foolish... - "_

Proto Man stopped. That was enough. How in the world was Bass getting all of this out of him? Was he that desperate to be heard? Blues leaned more firmly against the cold rocks of the little cliff. He began to wonder why he had come.

Bass, however, wasn't finished. _" - So why are you confessing after all this time? As long as no one scanned your CPU you could've gotten away with it. Or were you planning on being friends with Leila for a while and just hoping she would forgive you? - "_

_" - I wasn't going to tell her. Before my power core was fixed I expected to die as painfully as any robot can, just like I deserve. You would know this if you studied early robotics. My power core would slowly shut down, starting to render one system after another useless. Finally the core would rupture in three weaker places, creating a series of small explosions. - "_

_" - Ugh, don't tell me about that crap. Crystal Bot ranted about it for two weeks about how lame the explosions would be once she did the math. - " _Bass hesitated, and when his voice returned it was more in control. _" - Eh, I take it that once you decided to live you didn't have an excuse for not telling Leila. - "_

Proto Man shuffled his feet. It was hard to go on. He thought it would be easier to tell this to Bass because Bass wasn't sensitive or a friend of his, but that only marginally helped. The real person he had to face was himself, and continually thinking of the matter was only getting more difficult. He forced himself to continue.

_" - I had an excuse. Leila's happiness. But Leila deserved to know. For her to go on blissfully unaware that she was friends with her father's murderer...and I would live unpunished...it's just not right. - " _Proto Man let out a sharp breath. _" - To see her when she knew the truth was the worst thing I will ever witness. I never realized what it was like for her...and I took that away...all this time I was the only thing even close to a father for her... - "_

That was it. He was done. There was no way that Proto Man could possibly say any more. He shook, trembling as the memories renewed themselves and tormented him. To remember her expressions haunted him. Leila was all smiles as she ran up to him, then confusion took hold, slowly melting into despair as she realized what he was saying. The murder was no joke, and Proto Man knew he would never forget the way the blood drained from Leila's face once she knew what he had done. Proto Man couldn't apologize; Leila was screaming so loud that he could hardly speak at all even if he'd had the courage, and courage had fled from him.

In that instant all the friendship that once existed vanished. The fearful hate in Leila's eyes stung him even though it only lastest the shortest moment before Leila ran from him, desperately headed for her door. Proto Man found his voice then, but not his feet. He collapsed to his knees as his futile apologies followed her to the front steps. She didn't turn back to look at him, and the only reply he got was the slam of the door. The dark night closed in on Proto Man, and he knelt there for minutes. He could still hear her crying. Only when the police sirens could be heard in the distance did he disappear.

He knew about Leila's father. Proto Man had heard many things about him, how silly he was and how much he'd loved his family. Richard was the sort of fellow that could make anyone smile, and as the only child Leila was the spoiled daddy's girl. Their pictures together were sweet.

He could still hear her crying.

_" - You still there? - "_

Proto Man startled. That's right, he was in Russia now, talking to Bass. He wasn't in Monstropolis. The pain subsided a little as the darkness of night was replaced by a cheery morning sun bouncing off the snow. In fact, it was bright enough out to make him think well of his visor. He blinked out of the memory, pulling himself to the present day.

_" - I'm here. - " _

_" - Look, you obviously know that what you did was wrong. So why the hell are you out here instead of turned in to the police? - "_

_" - Short answer? I panicked. - " _Proto Man answered. _" - Besides, someone has to watch out for Rock. I thought at first I could confess and things would be fine: Rock found the escaped Dr. Wily at the perfect time and stopped him from using Dr. Cain for whatever his next scheme would have been. I was beginning to think that Rock might be able to take care of himself, that he wouldn't need me protecting him anymore. Now that I'm hearing about Wily's robots looking for Zero and Dr. Cain is out again...I just...I can't let him face something like that alone. - "_

_" - One, Zero is __**my**__ problem, not his, - "_ Forte growled. _" - And two, there's always going to be some crap going on in the world that Rock needs to take care of. You've told the truth and now the government knows. You made the choice, and you're lying to yourself if you think that everyone's just going to forget about you now. The government doesn't cut killer robots any slack. You're better off helping yourself out and turning yourself in. If you're lucky, you'll get a memory wipe and live. If you're stupid, I ship your pieces to Monstropolis in a crate. - "_

That didn't help Blues' temper any. His teeth gritted firmly together despite what little self-control gathered itself together to resist, and his anger rose up.

_" - As if I couldn't teleport out of here right now and hide so that you would never find me. - " _Proto Man snapped. _" - Don't push your luck. I'm not a patient robot these days. - "_

_" - Alright, sorry! Chill out. Sheesh. - " _Bass was clearly putting an effort into keeping himself under control. _" - Don't go anywhere. You're lucky I know you, so don't throw away your one chance to make this easier than it has to be. - "_

_" - Easier? What does that mean? - "_

_" - It means that if you stay here I won't tell the news. I can probably get the feds not to say anything publicly about you, or at least try. No one will have to know about this that you don't want. - "_

_" - That won't stop Leila from talking. - " _Proto Man tried to restore his natural calm, but it wasn't working. He sighed. _" - Besides, I don't really care that much about my reputation with the public. The only person I'm worried about is Rock. Even if no one knew that the government had me destroyed, Rock would stop at nothing to find out why I stopped appearing. There's nothing I can do that in the end will stop him from finding out what I've done. - "_

_" - Okay. So you have to control the information. How do you want him to find out? Do you want to be the one to tell him? - "_

_" - NO! - "_

The very thought of being there to see Mega Man's eyes as he lost faith in his older brother would be to hard for Proto Man. He couldn't bear the thought of witnessing his brother's pain. He wanted to only be good in his brother's mind. It would kill him if Mega Man knew what sort of robot his brother once was. The very idea threw his emotions out of what little sync they had recovered.

_" - Then who do you want to tell him? No way in hell __**I'm **__telling him. I can get my ethics agent to do it. He knows Rock. - "_

_" - I...I don't want him to find out at all... - "_

Proto Man's words faded away. Now that it came down to it, he had been planning all along to die with Mega Man thinking well of him. Let all the world be corrupt and terrible, but Proto Man wanted to be the one thing in this world for innocent Mega Man to believe was good and righteous. Rock had to know that his brother hadn't always held the best morals, but that never really connected in his mind. All the days of Proto Man's past might as well be fairy tales for all Rock was concerned. If Proto Man died before his brother knew the truth about him, then not only would he not see or hear of Mega Man's reaction, but the death would make it easier; people generally think of the dead in kinder terms.

More than that, Proto Man didn't want his brother defending him. The naiive bomber would certainly do so, regardless of the fact that Blues did deserve punishment. Proto Man didn't like being helped. He didn't want his brother involved in his drama; he was there to support Mega Man and be the hero for him, not the other way around. That brought new worries into his mind.

_" - I can't do this, Bass. Not yet. - " _Proto Man finally spoke. _" - I need more time...I have to know that Rock will be able to handle fighting without my guidance. - "_

_" - Didn't you just say that Rock finding Wily in the hospital was proof enough? - "_

_" - I'm not so sure now. I can't leave Rock until Zero is dead, and I just heard that Wily robot masters broke Dr. Cain out of prison and not Dr. Wily. This is exactly the situation where Rock needs me, especially now that Dr. Light is gone. You know how much the doctor's help meant to him. Fighting alone is not something Rock should have to do. - "_

Proto Man waited patiently. Surely mentioning Dr. Light's name would help his cause. Bass had to know that Dr. Light was especially helpful in explaining to Mega Man exactly which human emotions made the twisted Wily do what he did. He also knew of the soft spot Bass had for the doctor, and manipulating that would be easy. Proto Man sighed. It was hard to think of Dr. Light in familial terms, even now. Especially now.

_" - Eh. I'm feeling nice today. - " _Bass answered. _" - Those feds can wait a bit before I bring you in. It won't hurt anyone. You get one week to figure out how to make yourself feel better and then you turn yourself in. - "_

_" - What? One week? What am I supposed to do in a week? - "_

_" - You heard me. Seven days. Today counts as one. - "_

_" - That's not long enough! There's no telling how long it will take to find out what Dr. Cain has done. You do realize that if you let me go now you'll have no other chance to find me again, right? I've been hiding from authorities all my life. I can manage one more person. ...Bass? Still there? - "_

There was no response. Proto Man abruptly cut himself off, freezing in place. What a fool he had been; any robot with sense would have started tracking Proto Man immediately after the conversation had begun. No wonder Forte had been trying hard to keep his sarcasm and ill temper in check. Their topic of conversation had been so emotionally charged for Blues that it distracted him from his normal awareness. The whole thing had been a trap from the first. Since when was Bass so diplomatic? Proto Man wasted no time scolding himself over it. He had to focus if he was going to get out of there.

Too late. A bit of snow fell from the top of the rocky wall Proto Man was leaning against. Looking up showed him only the snow that hung off the edge of the cliff, but if Bass was there, one good shot would prevent Proto Man from being able to teleport. Proto Man engaged his zoom feature, squinting behind his visor. There it was, sticking out as a black spot against the grey sky.

A headfin.

_Crap..._

The spot that had once been so handy for evading capture had become a prison. Running outwards and away from the cliff wall meant that he was running into the open where Bass could see him, and if he stayed there too long than surely Bass would find the opportunity to fire. He couldn't fire back and have a good chance of hitting Bass, not with being at the base of the cliff. Blues had to risk a teleport. Gearing up the coordinates for an escape, Proto Man prepared his way out. Initiating...

The plasma pellets were quicker. They dashed into Proto Man, breaking up his teleportation field and forcing him out from the wall. He had to get out of the line of fire; even as Forte dropped to his level he fired his annoying blasts. Blues pulled out his shield and blocked the onslaught. Letting his buster charge as the pellets hit, Proto Man rolled to the right to get out of the way, diving into the snow. Before the powder settled he let loose the charge, hitting Bass directly in the face.

A growl told Proto Man that he wasn't through yet; another wave of plasma shots headed his way, and Bass plowed through the snow as he dashed across. As Proto Man barricaded himself from the oncoming shots, he wondered if he was forgetting something. Before he had the time to remember his shield flew from his arm and fell uselessly away.

_He can shoot shielding off! __How could I forget something like that? _

That didn't mean that Proto Man lost too much of his advantage. Even as he scolded himself in his thoughts, he blocked two punches from Bass. Not for nothing had Proto Man survived obsolete for several years; he jumped clear out of Bass' reach and overhead, chased by fire but not caught.

Also, not for nothing was Bass the second most powerful robot in the world. He dashed to where Proto Man would land, ready for him. Proto Man took a blow to the chest, and he fell back into the snow. Before he knew it, Bass had him by the neck, holding him in his ever tightening grip. Bass' grin was foul and boastful as Blues sputtered. There was little point in further struggling. Proto Man knew he was caught. He stopped trying to pull Bass' hands away and slumped. He was headed for the Robotics Ethics Agency, his inevitable fate.

"See? You're not so hard to catch." Bass said with smug confidence, lowering Proto Man's feet back to the ground and letting go as he spoke. "One week is what you get. You can turn yourself in to me or directly to the feds. I don't really care which as long as it's done."

Proto Man glowered. If the situation had been more fair, Bass would know better than describe him as easy to catch. "And if I don't?"

Forte smugly folded his arms. "Then I go out and tell every reporter I can find what you did. Think about what happens then. Everyone finding out exactly what kind of robot you are, blaring on every channel. It'll be all over the internet, the papers, and everything in every country in the world. What will Kalinka think when she finds out?"

Proto Man shuddered, lowering his head. "Bass...please..."

"Roll barely knew you. I wonder if she'll only cry for half a year? I heard she's been depressed lately."

"You can stop now."

"And what about your dear little brother? Poor little dweeb Rock has to find out that his big brother that he looks up to and saved him a million times is a cold blooded killer. Try to imagine his eyes as he watches the news and sees you on there being taken away by the feds. On every channel, over and over again without being able to get away from it..."

"Bass!" Blues' voice cracked. "Please...stop!"

Proto Man couldn't stop shuddering. So much had happened to him over the past couple of days that he struggled to hold it together. As much as he hated losing control, he still shook, unable to look at Bass in the eye.

"I'll turn myself in." Proto Man barely spoke up loud enough for Bass to hear. "Just stop talking about it."

"Good." Bass gruffly continued. "Now stay the hell out of Russia. I'm going to kill Zero so you can relax about that and go babysit Rock. Remember what I said. I'm risking my stupid career for this so you better be grateful."

"I am." Proto Man's voice was as icy as his surroundings. "Thank you _so much_."

"Shut up. I've got better things to do than talk to a stupid emo kid like you."

Bass started walking away. He sent a quick transmission to Treble to get the dog's position and see if he had found anything. Treble replied that he hadn't found anything yet, but was making progress through the suspected area. He gave his coordinates to his master so that Bass could get back to the search and pick up where he left off.

"Bass..." Proto Man spoke up once more. His control had returned, and he was going to accomplish what he had set out to do when he got to Russia. "You make sure that Zero is dead."

The dark robot turned back, glaring at Blues. "Just what did you think I was out here doing?"

"I'm serious. Don't try to fight him just to prove you can do it. Just kill him when you've got the chance. The world doesn't need to be threatened just because you wanted a challenge. You're supposed to be a good guy now, and if that means anything then your first priority is to keep people safe."

"You're seriously telling me what to do _now_?" Bass shook his head, giving Proto Man a glare through his narrow eyes. "You really never quit. Anything else, oh righteous oracle?"

Proto Man was about to answer in the negative and add in a sour remark, but he paused a moment. There was one more thing. It wasn't advice, but it was the answer to Bass' earlier question. If Blues could have this, then he could be calmer about the future. He regretted not thinking about it before, but now it was settled.

"Yes. There's a man I used to know before I left Dr. Light's lab a long time ago. His name is Harry Briggs. He's one of the senators for California. Have him tell Rock afterwards."

There was no need for Proto Man to mention what he meant by afterwards. Bass nodded. Bass had never met Harry, but he could remember the name. If he was going to be nice enough to let Proto Man have another week, he might as well go through with this.

"Eh, sure. I'll find him." Bass shrugged. "After I get Zero. Now if you'll excuse me."

And Bass abruptly walked off. He was tired of dealing with other people's business, he wanted to deal with his own. Only the slightest of _twipps_ told him that Proto Man had teleported out; his teleporter was much quieter than most robots'. It didn't occur immediately to Bass that this might be the last time he ever spoke to Proto Man. Once it did, he shrugged it off. He had nothing to say to Proto Man, other than "shut up and get out of my way". Perhaps a "stop wasting my time" or two. Let others be sentimental. Bass had a job to do.

For now, he brought all of his attention back to Zero. His scanners were still on, detecting. The area Proto Man had hidden was a place that Bass had already searched, but it didn't hurt to be extra careful if he had to go there again anyway. There was nothing, just like last time, so Bass teleported back to where he had been before Proto Man had interrupted.

For the next blissful ten minutes, there was nothing in his mind but the crunching of the snow, the constant scans of the frozen underground, occasional _pings_ from Treble, and listening to the whispers of the quiet wind. There were mountains up ahead, and Bass began to suspect that Zero was hidden among them. Mountains had caves, and caves were far easier places to hide a robot than buried in the hard, frozen ground. This far north in Russia there would be little chance that Wily had been able to hide Zero in spring.

_" - Um, Forte-kun, why did you let Proto Man go? - "_

Bass' expression was perfect in its immense frustration and anger, a grotesque grimace that was only flawed in the sense that it had no audience to see it. He was tempted not to answer her, but he got the feeling that this was one of those times when Crystal Bot needed to learn her limits. Besides, if she found out the truth about Proto Man, that would only be another annoyance to him.

_" - Please tell me you weren't listening in... - "_

_" - I wasn't, but Mr. Reyes did. He's been here at the lab for half an hour. He won't tell me anything, but he's really really mad at you for not capturing Proto-kun. He says he's gonna tell his bosses. - "_

And again came that desire to scream. Bass gritted his teeth even further. Why was his ethics agent in the lab? He didn't need constant supervision. Because the conversation with Proto Man had all been by transmission and mostly likely Proto Man wouldn't be able to understand Bass' more heavily encoded frequencies, any government with the right technology could have listened in. At that point, Bass decided that he didn't care anymore. He didn't want to deal with Proto Man or Proto Man related situations.

_" - I've got more important crap to deal with, so you tell Reyes that if he wants to talk to me then he can get his butt out __**here **__and talk to me. I'm not about to let Zero get activated just because of stupid Proto Man! - "_

_" - Um...well, I'm talking to you through a narrow beam transmission, so he can't hear this. How about I just tell him that your comm is shut off now? - "_

_" - Whatever involves him leaving me alone. - "_

Bass cut off the transmission. He figured that this would prove to be trouble for him later on, but he just didn't care. If he brought back Zero's head then perhaps the REA would shut up. He would bring back Blues' next if the loner robot didn't keep his word.

Blues hadn't gone that far when he teleported. He stood out of Bass' scanning range, but he was still knee deep in the northern Russian snows. Most people weren't aware of exactly how far Proto Man's transmission recievers reached to pick up signals. He wasn't quite able to make out the converstation between Bass and Crystal Bot, but it was easy to guess she was telling her grumpy boss about the presense of Tim Reyes at Dr. Cossack's lab.

That indeed meant that Reyes had been listening, just as Proto Man knew he would. Robots had no right to a trial. Their CPUs were scanned and they were judged on that alone. Proto Man was never confident that those scans showed exactly what robots felt about their lives, so he decided that he would get creative to make sure the government knew his side of the story.

Proto Man sighed. As much as he wanted to make sure Zero was dead, staying in Russia would only aggravate Bass, and that was something he of all people could not risk doing. He stomped his feet in the cold snow, shaking off what accumulated on his armor. He looked up at the bright grey sky, letting the height bring on its unreal dizzying sensation. It wouldn't storm again soon. Hopefully that meant ideal conditions for Bass to find his target.

_I better leave...I want to see as much as I can of my family before this week is over..._

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- One of the problems with writing a fanfiction is deciding what all powers the three fighter-bots have. In the games they switch a lot. For the record, Bass can shoot off shields like he can in MM10, Proto Man can charge his buster a little like he did in MM7, and Mega Man can both charge and slide.

Character profiles!

Agent Tim Fernando Reyes  
**"I'm doing the best that I can."  
**Good point: organized  
Bad point: too serious  
Likes: doing paperwork  
Dislikes: troublesome people

Tim is a fairly steady guy, most of the time. He's very sensible and knows how to talk to people in a way that gets him what he wants. He's very smart. Reyes' family came to America in the late 19XX from Mexico, but they were legal immigrants. Reyes grew up always wanting to do something with robots, but given his diplomatic mind and hatred of math, he ended up working for the Robotics Ethics Agency. He likes it, especially since he often got to work with his favorite robot Mega Man.

Tim is definitely a workaholic because of his job, to the point where his collegues call him a robot. This never prevented him from marrying Rita Jones, a woman six years younger than him and works in a different department of the REA. They don't have any children yet.

Senator Harry Samuel Briggs  
**"Well, hi there! I sure hope you're having a fantastic day!"  
**Good point: friendly  
Bad point: boisterous  
Likes: making conversation  
Dislikes: stiff people

Harry is the oldest of four siblings, the rest of which are all girls. As the son of his family, his humorous father expected much from him. Harry didn't disappoint, and managed his way through college. Due to his love of talking, it was clear even from a young age that Harry was going to be going into politics. He got started off in the REA when it was a brand new agency of the government, one formed when Dr. Light began presenting serious details of his new robot Proto Man and similated intelligence. Even from the beginning, Harry was fond of Proto Man and treated him like a child (which gained him no points from the robot). He was very disappointed when Proto Man disappeared and was assumed to be dead (and very happy when he found out this was wrong).

After that, Harry was married, and has since had three children, two boys and a girl. However, his job became more and more time consuming as he gained more political experience, and now that he is a Senator, his wife is beginning to wonder how this marriage is going to work out. Harry's aloof humor and inability to take his wife's concerns seriously doesn't help any.

To explain his dislike, Briggs always expects people to be as wild and hyper as him. It disappoints him when people just try to ignore him or humor him. He likes people that either keep up with him or disagree with him the best, especially if they are witty.

Briggs always remains cheerful through thick and thin, and on the surface nothing appears to get him down. He is a heavy smoker.


	7. Cain Starts It Off

Mega Man was worried. Even though he had transfered Wily to a more secure prison further south in California, the thought of dealing with Dr. Cain bothered him. Since when was Cain able to steal the Skull Capsule from Wily and take control of his robots? Would he be able to rebuild his own? Mega Man counted down the robot masters Cain had built and tried to remember whose weakness was whose. In the past, Mega Man hadn't been able to figure it out.

"Well, it's not like I have their powers anyway." Mega Man said to Auto. "All the clues we have so far is that a bunch of robots stole thirty million dollars from the bank and transfered it to several unknown accounts - we know it couldn't be just one account, or someone's savings would suddenly be thirty million more and of course that's suspicious. The digital trail was erased, so the police can't trace it. Did you find anything on these robots' CPUs?"

The blue bomber referred to the three torn up machines sprawled out on the repair tables in the lab. Pump Man, Burst Man and Burner Man lay there, each hooked up to the computer pillars beside the heads of the tables that served as scanning devices. Auto happily worked on each of them, letting the data in their heads show itself on the screen in each computer.

"Well, Magnet Man was too damaged to scan, so he's at the robot museum now." Auto said. "As for the others, the past month of their memories was encoded, but even after getting past the security measures, there's just nothing there. It's all deleted. I found a couple of directives that detailed their scheme on the bank, but that's it."

"Just like Cut Man in Russia!" Mega Man exclaimed. "That means that Cain, not Wily, is trying to find whatever Bass is looking for. It must be some powerful weapon that Wily hid out there!"

"Didn't you say before that Gemini Man and Sword Man's memories weren't deleted like Cut Man's?" Auto mentioned as he pushed more buttons on the computers beside the captured Wily-bots. "They might have been working for Wily-"

"-And some of the Cain controlled robots killed them for it!" Mega Man exclaimed. "I have to tell Bass! He could be walking right into a battle zone!"

Before the conversation could go any further, a red light began to blink on the lab's main control monitor, and the screen screamed at them the words RED ALERT. The blaring alarm continue until Mega Man ran over and slammed a button. The screen turned from the flashing letters to a view of the middle of Monstropolis, where Auto's shop stood. The Eddie-shaped building was being pummeled and blasted by several Wily-robots.

"My shop!" Auto yelled, throwing his hands atop his head. "Aaaugh! What are they doing? I'll give them what-for!"

With a few karate chops and high kicks in the air, Auto imitated his favorite kung-fu moves from the films. For further effect, he pulled out his Japanese fans and swung them about ferociously. Despite the urgency of the situation, Mega Man had to hold in a laugh.

"Um, how about you leave this to me, Auto?"

"Right, right. That's why you're the expert!"

The blue and cyan streak flew upwards as Mega Man teleported out, landing almost instantaneously outside the front of Auto's shop. He found himself greeted by a vicious swipe to the face. Mega Man's instincts were quick, and he dodged just as Slash Man was about to hit him. He blasted off three shots to push Slash Man back.

"Graawwrrl!" Slash Man snarled. "You're fast, Mega Man, but you can't stop us!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

Mega Man accepted the challenge as bravely as ever, blasting off at Slash Man once more before aiming left at Yamato Man. The sneaky shogun wasn't going to be sneaking up on him any time soon.

"Just get the building, Yamato!" Slash Man snarled once more (did he ever talk normally?) and flung an abrupt claw at his companion. "I've got this guy."

"Just like you did the first time you fought him?"

The spiky robot roared at Yamato, making his fury very clear. "I said, GO!"

The ear-bursting loudness of Slash's cry was followed by the armor-busting fully charged Mega Buster. An angry Slash Man jumped forward at Mega Man, ready to render him to pieces. He tackled Mega Man and began slashing away, taking a serious pounding from Mega Man as he did. Thankfully, Slash Man's abrupt conversation with Yamato Man had allowed Rock to equip his ultra armor.

Despite this, he couldn't just sit there and let Slash Man rip him to shreds. He shot a buster pellet into Slash Man's chin, then fired off a one-two punch that knocked the Wily-bot back. Jumping to his feet - and dodging one last swipe from the spiky-bot, Mega Man made sure Slash Man wouldn't be any more trouble. A flood of plasma bullets ended Slash Man's attacks.

Mega Man snapped around, trying to find out where Yamato Man went. Instead, all he saw was Auto's Eddie-shaped shop covered from head to toe in vines. Mega Man gasped. If he didn't act soon, he would be too late.

"Plant Man! Oh no-"

Mega Man quickly equipped the slash claw so that he could put a stop to this. Before he could react to what he saw, Yamato Man slashed his spear across Mega Man's neck, sending him sprawling to the ground. Instantly Mega Man's darker colors faded back into his normal blue and cyan. With a flash of light, Mega Man was unable to move, and lay there stiff, flat on his back. The clattering of hooves against the street told Rock who it was before he even saw Centaur Man's face staring smugly down at him.

"Watch this, Mega Man." Centaur Man taunted. "Surely you can see the show from down there."

He could. Mega Man gasped with horror to see the vines tighten around Auto's stop, forcing the walls inward. The structure crumbled, and the metal walls groaned and screamed as they bent in. The legs of the shop were squeezed the hardest, and they buckled. Without its supports, the structure had no choice but to forfeit to gravity and slam into street below.

"No!"

Mega Man waited only as long as the centaur flash held him. Re-equipping his ultra armor, he was on his feet before either of the Wily-bots guarding him could do so much as blink. A quick buster shot at Yamato Man, and Mega Man was ready to take on the half-horse-bot. His grin turned almost into a smirk. His armor protected him from the centaur flash, so that leveled the battle to a more even state - or as even as it could be with two versus one.

"You're a mighty warrior Mega Man," Yamato Man brandished his spear with pride, stabbing out at Mega Man and sending him jumping back.

"But you can't stop our new master!" Centaur Man finished for him as he sent out a spread of plasma. This wasn't so easy for Mega Man to dodge. "You might as well just give up now!"

"A true warrior can never give up." The Japanese robot rebuked his companion, almost sounding proud of Rock. "No, Mega Man will remain until the horrid, bitter end!"

"Until I win you mean!"

With a charged blaster shot that shone as bright as the light of justice in him, Mega Man destroyed Yamato Man. This attack left his back facing Centaur Man, and he found himself the unfortunate victim of several shots in the back. Mega Man rolled across the pavement, injured but not out of the fight. He clasped his left buster, shakily getting back up. His teeth clenched tightly with determination.

"I've got this one, Rock!"

Several gyro blades surrounded Centaur Man, and the angry robot lifted on his hind legs, stomping and trying to escape.

"Arrgh!" he snapped, stomping in anger. "That's not fair! You stupid Team 5 piece of -"

_**BOOM.**_

Centaur Man exploded, leaving head and limbs strewn about the street. Gyro Man, up in the air above the scene, laughed a mildly haughty laugh. After all, it was good to fight with a hero like Rock instead of just being another member of Team 5.

"Glad I showed up, huh? It would have been better if I was here before the shop collapsed, though...sorry-"

"Gyro Man!" Mega Man yelled, his eyes widening in horror. "Watch out!"

"Huh?"

Six brick red flying wedges surrounded Gyro Man, and only as they flickered did he finally notice that he was trapped. One instant later, and an electrical surge blasted through Gyro Man, tearing through his system and shutting down his propellor. The worst part was Gyro Man's eyes. They turned completely blank, not so much as flinching when his metal body smacked against the ground.

"Mega Man..." Gyro Man gasped. "I can't see..."

There was nothing Mega Man could do. Even as Gyro Man said this, the six pieces came together and formed the most boring biped machine in Monstropolis. Everything from his shapeless limbs to his unibrow was precisely and definitely indistinct and uninteresting. But Rock knew better than to underestimate him. Echelon Man had the most powerful attack of any Cain-bot, and Gyro Man was lucky to not be an electricity based robot master - those robots felt better than most the wrath of the echelon heatshock.

Right away Mega Man knew to fire off a charged shot, only he didn't get the chance. Spiked vines lashed out at him and held his arms. Rock couldn't move. He realized with horror what Plant Man was trying to do. Echelon Man had been designed to kill Mega Man, and he was coming closer...

"Oh no you don't!" Mega Man peppily exclaimed. "I won't let you!"

At once the slash claw came back out, and the vines were torn off. The petals that made up Plant Man's shield appeared around him, but he winced in fear. The slash claw was just as good at shredding his petals as it was his vines. He backed away with uncertainty, not ready to be weeded.

"Sorry, Echelon Man!" Plant Man shuddered. "There's no way I'm fighting _that_. Why did we have to bring Slash Man?"

"Then fight me!" Napalm Man exclaimed from behind. "Go, Rock! Get Echelon Man!"

He didn't need to be told, but even so he had a hard time dodging the electric bolt that Echelon Man fired off. Mega Man jumped, wishing that he didn't have to get rid of his ultra armor to use robot master weapons. Slash claw probably wasn't going to be much good against Echelon Man, so Mega Man went ahead back to his ultra armor. He was going to need all the protection he could get to defeat this Cain-bot.

Echelon Man charged toward Mega Man, running as fast as his boring legs could carry him. Mega Man charged his shot, just waiting for the right moment to fire. He blasted away, only for Echelon Man to suddenly split away into his six wedge form and dodge the powerful plasma completely (the plasma hit an unfortunately placed mailbox, littering the street with letters). Each piece of the boring Cain-bot zoomed in position to let out their main attack. As much as Mega Man tried to shoot at the pieces and free himself from the surrounding wedges, there was nothing he could do to stop the inevitable; six electrical beams shot at the bomber from all around, and he could almost feel his innards sizzling. His innards went completely crazy, and one system after another blinked rapidly off and on.

Rock wasn't the hero of Monstropolis for nothing. Even through all of this, he didn't forget his kung fu. Mega Man kicked and punched his way out of the center of destruction, then blasted away one wedge after another. As he blasted the fifth, the sixth promptly fell out of the sky, defunct. The rocket that propelled it cut off, and it landed in the rubble of Auto's shop.

"Ugh, that hurts! Oh! Napalm Man, are you okay?"

An explosion and a roar of fire told him that Plant Man was no more. Thankfully the robot's body was left in the street and not near anything flammable, but that didn't mean Napalm Man wouldn't be getting another lecture about using his napalm bombs in the city limits. Mega Man made a mental note to ask Gravity Man to invent another weapon for Napalm Man to use that was safer.

"I'm alright!" Napalm Man cruised past Mega Man, the treads on his feet propelling him to where his comrade lay. "I just need to help Gyro Man!"

"Ugh..." The green robot was trying to get up despite his shaky limbs. "That sucked...I can't believe I didn't see Echelon Man sneak up on me."

Napalm Man, ever the the one to use his new hands, converted his napalm shooters to them and pulled Gyro Man up. Then he promptly flung Gyro Man over his shoulder - really, he was in no condition to go anywhere on his own - and waved at Mega Man. Rock winced. Gyro Man's pride had been badly hurt by being taken out of the fight so quickly, and now having to go back to the lab like a kidnapped cavewoman could hardly soothe his ego any.

"Let's get out of here!" Napalm Man didn't seem to notice how awkward things were for his poor team member. "We need to get Gyro Man fixed up, and wow, you don't look so great yourself."

Mega Man looked at his armor. He was pretty banged up, and the scorch marks near his busters showed that something was short circuited in them. He didn't need to be fighting anyone again without extensive repair.

He sighed. "Yeah, I need to hurry up and get Auto to fix me before the next robot master comes...yeesh, I could have sworn Dr. Cain was going to give up!"

-t-

The day started like any other for Bass. Once again he had spent the night searching for Zero, and as light returned to the frozen slopes of very northern Russia, he still searched. He and Treble were searching the frozen mountains for any sign of Wily's masterpiece, and they were closing in - or so Bass guessed. Months ago he had managed to discover the first four digits of the teleport location that held Zero, and those had dictated that Zero was hidden somewhere in northern Russia. Missing the last five digits was a pain, but the search was still possible. Since leaving Wily, Bass had managed to narrow down the area to one focused location.

_Zero is here...I'll find that girly idiot..._

His thoughts wandered off to how powerful the pony-tailed robot might be. He found himself thinking with delight about how nice it would be to fight Zero and prove once and for all that Wily would never be able to destroy Bass, the one good thing he had ever built. Zero might have been designed to destroy him and Mega Man, but so had King, and everyone knew how that had worked out in the end. That brought up Proto Man's advice and a subsequent growl. There was no need to fight Zero. All he had to do was not activate him and just destroy him. Bass desired with all his heart to fight Zero, relishing the thought of destroying Wily's crown piece and proving that the old man was a failure, and that lightning didn't strike in the same place twice.

Still, as much as his mind struggled, he couldn't find a logical reason to ignore Proto Man and activate Zero first. Nobody needed to see what Zero was capable of, and any scientist could just examine him if they were that curious. The same went for discovering whatever information was on Zero's hard drive. The dark robot couldn't help but growl again. Proto Man being right was something he couldn't stand.

_How is a killer supposed to tell me what to do anyway?_ Bass huffed. _I can't wait until that bastard turns himself in and get turned to scrap by the feds. At least then he'll finally stay the hell out of my hair._

Bass sent out more scans as he walked across the side of a mountain. So far, he hadn't picked up anything yet on this hill, but he figured he would go and do an overall scan before looking more deeply. He didn't want to waste too much time looking in one place and let Wily-bots find Zero first. If these peaks prevented Zero from being discovered by his powerful search functions, then he could just get mummiras from Dr. Cossack and have them explore the mountains. The ones that died first would be the ones that found Zero.

_**Thunk. Thunk-thunk.**_

For now, Forte would have to be content just sticking those alert mechanisms in the dirt. Once again, it was handy to be a robot, but even then sticking two foot metal spikes into the frozen tundra wasn't a fun or easy task. These would serve to alert Bass and Crystal Bot back at the lab if anything was moving in the areas already searched. It was something that kept Bass from entirely enjoying the search for Zero, but if he didn't do it then someone could just activate the red-armored bot and have him disappear while Bass was looking elsewhere. Oh how boring this was!

All the same, Bass hoped that Zero might be activated by one of Wily's minions. Then Bass would get a nice fight with Zero. He grinned as he shifted the five spikes to a better position under his arm. He had a ways to go before he could place the next one, which was fine by him. He hoped that he could just find Zero and forget about the stupid spikes, but he had to be at least a little cautious.

Bass looked down. He had come to the far side of the mountain, and the ledge he was standing on ended. He was going to have to start going down if he were to continue. It was only a slope and not a steep cliff, so he wouldn't have any trouble holding on to the spikes. Still, he wished that Treble were there and not scanning some other part of the mountain range.

And then it happened. Bass froze, and the spikes fell aimlessly out of his arms. After months of searching and scanning, something had finally happened and he could now sense the presense of not only something Wily, but something very powerful. He couldn't believe it, but his expectation had finally come true: a signal was detectable from the next mountain over.

"Zero!"

The squealing sound of a teleport went off behind him, and Bass turned around immediately to find a confident and completely tacky robot grinning at him. This was a strange, orange robot, basically humanoid. He had an antenna sticking out at an angle from the helmet on his head, and several square patches on his arms, legs and chest glowed different neon colors in random patterns.

"Hi there, Mr. Fish!" the stranger said. "I am Algorhythm Man, and I owe you-"

"Screw you!" Bass roared. "I don't know or care who you are. I've got business to deal with, so stay the hell out of my way!"

Who was this Algorhythm Man? Some creation of a Russian robotics scientist? A friend or foe? Bass sure didn't care either way. He figured he might as well just tell Pharaoh Man to come send some Mummiras in case this ugly robot was any trouble. Let them deal with it while he teleported to Zero. Only neither of those functions worked.

_How is the comm network down? Robots generate network! And the teleportation field...argh!_

With Algorhythm Man's laughter, Bass turned back to him with an angry scowl.

"You should listen to me, Bass." Algorhythm Man taunted. "I've been looking for a way to get my revenge when you humiliated my master Nikola Cain, and now the day has finally come! You won't be able to teleport or communicate with your friends until you have faced a new, stronger Algorthyhm Man!"

The new, stronger Algorhythm Man needed to be faster to avoid that punch from Bass. He was good enough to make sure it only hit his shoulder and not his face (where Bass had aimed it), but even that sent him sprawling to the ground. Algorhythm Man shot out several of his colored plasma pellets at his adversary, managing to get up as he did this. The shots angered Bass more than they damaged him. He grabbed one of the fallen detector spikes and dashed forward, jamming it into Algorhythm Man's power core.

It wasn't a perfect hit. Another wave of shots from Algorhythm Man forced Bass to let go, and the flash of color in his face blinded him momentarily. It was long enough for Algorhythm Man to latch onto Bass' neck and start hacking. Not a good idea. The violent programs in his head fought the hacking back with violence. Bass ripped out his hand and punched him, sending Algorthythm Man hurtling down the mountain, skidding through the snow and smacking into rocks.

Much to Bass' wrath that didn't automatically make the teleportation network clear. He pulled out one of the teleporters that Crystal Bot gave him.

_This better work..._

It was designed to go where teleportations were down, so it did work (and Bass ignored whatever legal issues this brought up - let Crystal hide them from Reyes!). Bass teleported to the signal, eager and impatient to discover what he had been looking for after all this time. Once his teleport beam landed, he discovered a cave in the side of a mountain, but he also discovered several robots around, including Frost Man, and Solar Man. There were other robots there, as the zipping of teleportation beams going upwards told him.

"It's Bass!" Solar Man exclaimed. "Quick! We've got to go!"

"Do not worry, Sol Man!" Frost Man exclaimed. "Frost Man will make a Bassicle!"

The giant robot lifted his hands to do just that, and once they slammed into the ground a ridge of sharp ice stalagmites made its way to Bass. With Bass' dash, it was easy to dodge the attack, but that clearly did no good. By the time it had harmlessly driven past him and faded into nothing, the three robots still there were gone. Bass tried to track them, but his tracker wasn't working properly.

He dashed into the cave. He had to see what they had done. As stupid as it was to hope that Zero was still there, Bass did anyway. The cave was normal with stalactites and darkness for several yards, but after a right turn there was a set of metal doors built into the cave wall, and they were open. Going through the open doors led to a chamber filled with shut down auto cannons. There were also a few mets there, and they peeped up at him and shot a few pellets. Bass dashed on by without giving them a second thought.

Beyond them was another room, a round one with computers for walls. The door leading up to it was also open, so even as he dashed toward it Bass could already see that things had gone wrong. There in the room lay an open capsule, large enough for even the tallest of robot masters. And it was empty. As if to mock Bass, someone had left a computer console open next to the capsule, and on the display screen was the schematics for the exact robot he was looking for.

"I'll kill them...I'LL KILL THEM ALL!"

The little mets in the hall quickly ducked down under their helmets as the most disgusting swears they had ever heard echoed in the small facility and the cave beyond. The swearing by no means stopped after a short time. Bass remembered his robot assistant and ran even faster out of the cave. Coming back into the cold mountain landscape, he surveyed the area with fear.

"Treble! TREBLE! - _Treble, where are you, boy? - "_

At least being away from Algorhythm Man allowed him to use his comm. Still, there was no answer. Bass grit his teeth, trying his hardest to scan for his dog. There was no way a bunch of robot masters would all go unnoticed by the loyal purple wolf. Bass swore that if they did something to his dog, then he would find a way to make them suffer in ways unimaginable. He didn't have too long to worry. It wasn't long before he noticed that Treble wasn't far at all. In fact, he was just outside the cave, frozen in a block of ice. Much to Bass' comfort some of Freeze Man's remains were also frozen in the block, so at least Treble had gone fighting, and Freeze Man hadn't gotten away with his crime.

"Don't worry, boy, I'll get you out of this mess somehow." Bass examined the ice for weak spots, grimacing. "Of all the things to happen...I swear I'm going to kill those bastards..."

Bass got up and started firing at the ice block, determined to free his companion. As he did, he realized that he was getting a transmission from Crystal Bot.

_" - Forte-kun! - "_ the girl-bot was clearly worried. _" - Rock just called and he said that Dr. Cain was not only looking for Zero, but knows where to find him! - "_

The dark robot stopped. His fangs bared themselves, and he began to shake with rage. He desperately wanted to scream, but all he did was send a reply.

_" - Sonata... - " _he seethed. _" - Tell Rock that I hate him...I hate him __**so much**__... - "_

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- If you're wondering about the powers Mega Man gained in chapter one, he already deleted them. Mega Man is very ethical about getting too many powers after a team was defeated.

- I just realized that in every other story I write, Gyro Man gets pwned by someone. In Okkusenman, it was evil Crystal Bot, in Wily Ga Taosenai it was by Algorhythm Man and the data-kill virus, and now it's Echelon Man. Do I secretly hate him or something?

- I know Plant Man doesn't have whip vines in the game, but he does in his official art, so there. :P Makes sense he'd be weak to Slash Man.

- Bah, I kept typing Emit Man instead of Echelon Man. Different robots! Anyway, when Echelon Man is in his human form, he shoots a singular heatshock blast, but it's when he's in his wedge form that he does the most damage.

Character profiles!

=====Yamato Man  
**"Nippon Banzai!"  
**Good Point: Full of virility  
Bad Point: Shy  
Like: Japanese Sword  
Dislike: English  
Japanese data  
Good Point: Yamato damashii  
Bad Point: Bad with money

Yamato Man is the robot Japan endorsed to go to the robot championships, and he was always a very honorable, respecting robot. The emperor sent him away when he left, and all of his country cheered him on. And all of them were soundly pissed off when Wily took him over. Ever since then people have been trying to get him back, and Wily made sure to keep Yamato Man well away from Japan just to spite them all. He is one of four robots who never at any point were brought to the robot museum (the others being Drill Man, Toad Man, and Shadow Man - the first two were too useful to Russia and Shadow Man is just like that).

Never did any robot hate being a Wily-bot more, unless it was Knight Man. Yamato Man hated it because Wily reprogrammed him from being a good hearted person to being a cheat who always takes whatever shortcuts and pulls whatever cheap tricks he can (Wily is spiteful of Japan because Dr. Light likes the country). Yamato Man hates Dr. Wily, and if it weren't for Knight Man he probably would have glitched himself to death. The two became inseparable friends, and learned that they had much in common even though Knight Man was from England. These two led Team 6 together, which had problems at first because none of the robots came from the same country. However, everyone soon realized that the two (formerly) honorable robots were the smartest of them, and they accepted it.

When his scheme was over, Yamato was forced into theft to fund Wily's further research into robotic villainy, and of course he hated this. Around the time of Mega Man 9, Knight Man went to the robot museum, making Yamato Man pretty miserable until the events of Okkusenman. After the last Wily castle was destroyed, Yamato Man, Knight Man, and a few other members of Team 6 roved around trying to figure out what to do with themselves. They were attacked by some Canadian Mounties (you have to assume that in this universe people know how to fight robots) after Flame Man stole some oil, and that left Yamato Man injured. Knight Man tried to help him, but they were found and captured by Frantic Man, then reprogrammed to work for Dr. Cain.

=====Centaur Man  
**"Drop dead into the dimensions!"  
**Good Point: Decisive  
Bad Point: Dwells on things  
Like: Gambling  
Dislike: Whip  
Japanese data  
Bad Point: Many regrets

Centaur Man's origins were mostly the same as Yamato's, though he's from Greece and is an older robot. He used to work in a museum and he knows a lot about art and Grecian war. He's a very graceful robot that cares about keeping himself and his environment clean. He's quiet, mostly unassuming, but can be a little abrasive at times. When he first arrived at the robot competition he had a hard time making friends. He was much the same after being reprogrammed by Wily, but since then has learned to appreciate Team 6 (and only Team 6). He spent a little time in the robot museum after MM6, but was able to escape during MM7 when Wily broke in for Guts Man.

Centaur Man helped Wily just like any horse would: by transporting cargo and moving things. He worked a lot with Team 5 in building Skull Castles, but sort of resented the work as he wanted to be free in the fields, something you can't really do when you live on islands. He was programmed well, so he only complained to fellow robot masters and never in front of Wily.

When the last Wily Castle was destroyed, Centaur Man ran along with Knight and Yamato, enjoying being free for once. However, once Flame Man got the group in trouble (hey, that guy needs his oil), then Centaur Man was captured by the Canadians. He was stolen by Signal Man when he was taken to the local Mountie headquarters.


	8. Before the Storm

Dr. Cain grinned. He forgot all about the fact that he was working out of an old, decrepit Wily fortress. He forgot that he had just come from prison, and that he was once again depending on robots. Now before him was a strange, large robot that he had never seen before. The robot was so tall that his creations had to stretch a metal panel over two of the creaky repair tables just to hold him. Though to be fair this was mostly to keep the robot's long blonde hair from reaching the ground. He had silent face with strong features, and a red helmet topped off his bold red armor. Better than all of this, Dr. Cain liked what he saw on the data pad plugged into the robot's neck. It was still hacking away into the sleeping robot's mental capacity, and half the data couldn't be processed by Cain's technology. It was just too advanced. What he was able to see made him grin. This robot was powerful indeed.

"His name is Zero." Signal Man said. "I discovered him on Cut Man's CPU. This is Albert Wily's final act and greatest creation. It's more advanced than anything ever before built. Best of all, there's only one of him. He might be a prototype for a whole new kind of robot, but if that's true than the's the only one of his generation. Algorhythm Man and the little Wily-bots I reprogrammed went and fetched him from all the way out in Russia. I thought you might want to know about this."

"Perfect..." Cain's voice practically slithered out of his throat and his hands clasped together with sinister glee. "I programmed you better than I thought! Ha ha...this robot is just what I need. Such destructive power! I could use him to wipe this planet clean of all the stinking robots out there...I thought that it was the beginning of the end when my sons told me that they wanted to get into robotics. My own sons! But now I can save them from all of that, and they will grow up to be real men. Darn it, Epic Man, stop hiding! I know you're there!"

Normally the large lab would be filled with echoes and creaking floors if anyone so much thought about walking through the large and mostly empty lab of the old Wily castle. However, that didn't stop Epic Man from doing the impossible and sneaking in without so much as being seen by anyone, even Dr. Cain. Cain never would have admitted that he had a chip in his brain, and that was the only thing that allowed him to always know where his robots were.

Epic Man gave it up. There was no sense in hiding any longer. A tall, midnight blue robot popped out from behind the makeshift repair table that held Zero. His long, folded back antennae popped up first, and as he stood to his full height he showed himself to be a terrifyingly spiked specimen. His right side was sharp, certainly, but even more sharp was the left, with a full spike sticking out of his left shoulder, and a hand larger than the one on the other side. Worse of all were his poisonous green eyes, which gazed disapprovingly down at Zero. He glared at the red-armored robot with dismay, making sure that Zero knew he was unwelcome (as much as you can when that robot is not activated).

"I'm not sure how I feel about this one, doctor." Epic Man rubbed his chin suspiciously with his giant left claw. I mean, he's tall and all, but...he's so...well, how should I put it? Feminine. Yes. And a little tacky."

"Tacky? Not at all!" Signal Man said. "He's got quite the Japanese style going for him."

"Of course he's tacky! Just don't let the looks fool you." Cain leaned over the robot, still grinning from ear to ear. "I haven't even begun to discover the depths of this robot's mind, but even what I know so far tells me that this is no joke. This is simply the greatest and most powerful robot I have ever had the interesting luck to catch sight of. I'm quite astonished that this level of power even exists. Fortunately I also discovered that his power core is dangerous, so I can't exactly tinker with him the way I want."

"But what's he for?" Epic Man too leaned over Zero to get a better look. "Why did Wily build him?"

"To outdo that stupid Dr. Light, of course. Just like every other time." Cain blew off the question with ease. "The real question is, what is he for _now_? I will tell you the answer. This robot laying on this table is going to become the newest member of the army that will liberate humanity from the bonds of robotic science! I will use his great power to create fear in the people and make them wish that robots had never been built! Ha! Well, once I reprogram him. If only I had more time! Oh, that's right. Epic Man, what did you find out about the attack on Auto's shop?"

"It didn't go as well for us as we hoped." Epic Man straightened as he answered. "Echelon Man was defeated and captured, and all of our Wily-bots involved in that endeavor met the same fate. I am afraid none of them will return to us."

"Pssht. Who cares? Did the shop get destroyed or what?"

The midnight blue robot winced a bit, and sent the specifics to the chip in Cain's mind. "Ah, yes it did, Master."

"Good. That will seriously inhibit the robots in Monstropolis, as will all of the viruses and interferences I put on the shipping of supplies. We'll have to act fast."

Footsteps, two sets of them, echoed in the large room. One of these was Frantic Man, bearing a small teal robot on his shoulder. This robot looked more animal than anything else, with a round body, thick paws, and thin limbs in between. The back of his head were all spikes, and his large eyes and malicious grin set with sharp teeth created a very insane looking visage. The small critter had a data pad in his hands, and he poked at it with his claws as Frantic Man brought him up.

The other source of footsteps came from the far door to the right, and a red robot approached. He had stately features and a long nose. Mostly his armor was simple, and it did the job of covering his long limbs. His pointed helmet topped it all off. For the moment, there was nothing around him, though at some point Emit Man would find the proper junk to use as his shielding. For right now he just walked up to his creator.

"Ah, you wanted to see me, Master?" Emit Man said. "Have a job for me?"

"Yes. I want you to gather up as much information as you can from a Team 5 robot. Take some of those Wily-bots we have left with you and see if you can't catch one for me. I'd rather Algorhythm Man do it and just hack from there, but he still has data damage."

"He's going to be fine by tomorrow!"

Demi, the little teal robot, appreciated the ride on Clown Man's arm over to where his master stood. Frantic Man dropped him off on the table, retracting his arm as he stood a polite distance away. He knew his place. Namely, subservient to everyone else.

The little robot lifted his data pad to his master with his chunky paws. "Here you go. These are the viruses that Mr. Fish used on Algorhythm Man. He'll be right as rain this time tomorrow, don't worry. You should hear him ranting and raving about how next time he's going to beat Bass! Hahaha, I bet he could do it, too."

"Well, he's just going to have to deal with it if one of you beats Bass first." Cain took the data pad and inspected it. "I wish he'd worry more about the robot that _hasn't _been defeated yet. Mega Man is a far greater danger and we're going to have to keep him away from my lab until I get this Zero set up and programmed the way I like. Wily truly is a devious madman."

"Don't worry, I'm very eager to fight the invincible robot." Epic Man grinned wide. "I've got a nice trick up my sleeve for him."

"Trick or not, those irritating Team 5 robots always seem to show up and ruin our plans." Dr. Cain turned to Emit Man, lowering the data pads he held. "That's where you come in. Bring me back one, Emit Man!"

"I will certainly do so, Master." Emit Man was only happy to reply. "Oh, can I take Frantic Man with me? If I can split these fellows up then all the better."

"Take as many robots as you like. I'm sure we have a few more of those Wily-bots left. We don't need to pretend that Wily is behind this any longer, so don't worry about losing any of them. One day we will be rid of all of the robots, and the sooner that day comes, the better! Demi, have the rest of my robots pack up from this old ruin and head for my secret laboratory."

Demi had been happily poking at Zero's face. He longed to poke human eyeballs, but it would never do to tell that to his master. Still, his small size made it easy for him to crawl about the table and try to inspect what sort of armor and powers Zero had engineered into his body. But he stopped his musings and curiously looked up at his creator.

"Oh? We have a secret lab?"

"I don't tell you everything." Cain straightened, his posture telling everyone how very highly he thought of himself. "Now get packing. Signal Man, you did the best you could for being a robot, but this place is hardly what I would call worthy of my programming. Epic Man, you'll have to do some work to make us look like we're just an innocent 18 wheeler headed through town. Can you do it?"

"Yes, Master. I'll have to steal us an 18 wheeler first, but it can be done."

"Then get to work."

And they did. Signal Man headed for the place they kept some stolen computers, and Demi hopped off of the repair table to follow him out. Emit Man waved to Frantic Man, who gave a computerish chirp and obeyed. They headed out the rightmost door where Emit Man had entered. Dr. Cain lay down the data pad that had information on Bass' anti-virus programs to instead work on the other and get more hacking done on Zero while he had time. He was going to have to pack this robot up soon for the trip.

Epic Man hadn't left yet. He started for the door, but his pace never got past slow and reluctant. The spiky robot turned back to his creator, still hesitant. Cain was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice one of his robots was still behind him.

Epic Man wanted to clear his throat. He wanted to ask Dr. Cain the one question that haunted him every day he lived. As much as he liked serving his master and was programmed to follow his every order, he had a question. It had been nagging him since his earliest days (not that he had many of them - he was hardly a year old), and it wouldn't go away.

The midnight blue robot dared two steps toward his master, and he let his mouth hang open a little as he was about to speak. Dr. Cain didn't notice. He was too focused on hacking into Zero. It wasn't an easy task, and Dr. Cain's irritated cursing discouraged Epic Man. The robot lost his courage to speak to Nikola about his concern. His mouth closed, and his arms went limp. Epic Man stared at the floor. In a sudden surge of urgency hit him, and he once again lifted up his head to his master to make known his fear.

He could imagine it. Epic Man could see himself asking his master the question, "Does your plan to rid the world of robots mean that we too must die?". Epic Man's compatriots were as good as brothers to him, even surly Bullet Man and hermit-ish Sight Man. They were Cain's servants, loyal in every way. Surely Dr. Cain didn't mean for any of them to die. Maybe he meant that he would just make humans want to not use robots as much, or let them be the only robots alive. Epic Man could hear his master's words, reassuring him that he cared for all of his creations, and that not a one would die, not even for his cause.

It was foolish to keep thinking that way. It was even more foolish to speak of it to Dr. Cain. They were his servants, nothing more. He didn't compliment them or care much to upgrade them. He let Signal Man or Demi improve them if they could, but that was about it. As long as his plans were completed, he simply didn't have the patience for any of the robots to last longer than they needed to.

Epic Man let out a breath, letting his shoulders slump. He wasn't going to ask his master anything. There was no point. Instead he just turned around to go ahead and do as he was told. His programming wouldn't let him off. But as Epic Man turned around, he turned back just once, letting his eyes send poison and daggers back at his master. Then he turned away, so silent that not one footfall gave off the mildest of echoes.

-t-

"What?" Mega Man exclaimed. "How come you didn't tell me sooner?"

Bass growled. It was bad enough that he was back in Light Laboratories. It was horrible that he had lost Zero just moments before being able to destroy him. Dealing with all the time he spent in Russia being a complete waste consumed what little remained of Bass' self control. To make all of it worse, he was sitting in the lab being lectured by the "idiot blue dweeb" about how he should have told Mega Man everything he knew about Zero. It didn't help that Jewel Man was there. Sure, he and Crystal Bot were off at the side of the room talking with Auto about whatever sciency thing, but every so often Bass could see the shiny guy-bot turn back and glare at him.

"Ask Proto Man why he didn't tell you." Bass snapped, not at all happy to be thinking about the loner robot. "He knew about it for a while. Besides, how the crap was I supposed to know that Cain was going to go after him?"

Mega Man winced, and his urge to lecture faded out some. Maybe if he had been able to tell Bass sooner, then things would have turned out differently. "Um...sorry...I just found out that Cain wanted to find him. But you're sure it was Dr. Cain that captured Zero? I mean, maybe a Cain-bot just happened to be there and Dr. Wily's robots got there first."

"Eh," Forte shoved a thumb back at Auto's direction. "If Freeze Man's mind ends up having the same crap done to it as the other losers, then probably so did the robots that got away. Cain always had that thing for being able to get control of Wily's robots. Speaking of which, the old cranky bastard is still in prison, right?"

Rock nodded, cringing a bit at Bass' description of his creator. "I transferred him to a high security prison down in San Fransisco. He won't be coming out for a while if they can help it. A lot of his robots are still unaccounted for so...yeah. He was really mad when I dropped him off. He's not taking it easy at all. On the good side, though, if Zero is activated then maybe Dr. Wily will be willing to help us shut him down."

Bass only scoffed. "Right. And by help us you mean give us some code that will make Zero go berserk and even more destructive than he already is. Screw that. You'd think after all this time you'd stop trusting the guy."

"I was just being optimistic." Mega Man folded his arms, frowning. "I guess our next move is to figure out what Dr. Cain is planning. Knowing him, he'll want to create some grand display of power and then do something to control or destroy every day robots. He likes targeting Monstropolis, and he's always in a rush to get things done."

"He's even dumber than Wily." Bass commented. "So what are you planning to do?"

"I have Team 5 watching the city from their sattellite. Gyro Man, Stone Man, and Napalm Man are out there keeping an eye out for him in the city around the clock, and lots of people are getting this new anti-virus called Armor Core. It's supposed to be designed to stop Dr. Cain's viruses. I just wish I knew what he planned to do with Zero! That makes everything so much worse."

Mega Man sighed and flopped down in another chair. Even though Dr. Light had always been more of a solo scientist, it was as if his lab was designed for many people. The chairs bolted into the floor around the computers in the walls were definitely evidence of this.

With the break in the conversation between the two fighter-bots, the talking on the other side of the room grew more evident, and Crystal Bot's giggling either grew louder or just more noticable. Mega Man glanced her way, only to find that Jewel Man also was staring at him, covering up a bit of a smile. Rock turned to Bass, and since Bass was closer it was a lot easier to tell that they were all staring at the top of his head.

Mega Man's innocent blue eyes looked up. He wasn't wearing his helmet, so the first thing he saw was only his black bangs. Only a moment later, and a brown bird stared down at him with its beady eyes. It adjusted its brown wings, shuffling through Rock's hair to get a better grip as it hung over his forehead and stared straight into his eyes.

"Tweet-tweet!"

"Aaah!" Mega Man instantly jumped up and tried to brush it off. "Get it off me!"

"Ha ha," Crystal Bot laughed. "Bruce isn't going to hurt you. Just 'cause he's a pipi doesn't mean he's out to get you. Bruce likes you! I remodeled him and he just wants to show you how much he looks like a normal bird!"

"Sona-chan!" Roll exclaimed. "You know Rock doesn't like pipies! Hold still, Rock."

A long, metal arm extended outwards and gently clutched the bird, tugging him and his little feet out of Mega Man's wild locks. The arm was one of the eight that belonged to Dub, Roll's spider-bot assistant. He was little more than a green box with eight arms on the sides and two round eyes on the front, making him look especially nerdy for a machine. Dub pulled Bruce back and looked him over, squealing in his own computer way as if curious. Bruce tweeted back, and Dub let him go. Roll was a little less forgiving, and she shook a fighter at Bruce.

"Don't be so naughty, Bruce!" Roll scolded gently as the pipi flew toward her. She held out her hand, and he landed there and tweeted. "Don't think you're so cute that you can do whatever you want."

Crystal Bot had made her way across the room by then, and she giggled as she walked up to her friend. "You're totally lying. You're not really mad at him."

"It's really not fair. I can't stay mad at Bruce. He's just so cute!" Roll patted Bruce gently on the head. "Go on now, and stay out of trouble."

Bruce did fly off, but it was anyone's guess as to whether he would be good or not. Mega Man's eyes followed him with a suspicious shudder. Crystal Bot smirked at him, silently waving for her pipi to come to her shoulder and land. She gently petted his head.

"So anyway," Crystal turned to her boss. "Forte-kun, I wanna go with Jewel Man tonight. He's got to go to his jewelry shop and work and I wanna go see how his laser diamond cutters work. You know, I have to see all forms of technology because I can get inspired for upgrades and things like that. Please, can I go? _Please_? I'll be able to upgrade you really cool and stuff if you let me!"

Bass stared at her with dull eyes. Though the little prank had amused him some, he still wasn't in the best of moods. His glare communicated his opinion very clearly.

"Okay, fine, so I just wanna go because it's cool and I finally get to hang out with _Ahbohjee._" Pouting, Crystal Bot folded her arms. "I mean, you won't let me try out my new plan against Dr. Cain, so I want to do something fun. Not much I can do here anyway without waiting for Dr. Cain to show himself."

"You have a plan?" Mega Man asked. "What is it?"

"No, Rock, don't even bother." Bass huffed, glaring at his technician. "It's not even worth hearing. There's a reason she's a tech and not a fighter-bot."

"That doesn't mean I can't help!" she stomped her foot. "It's a good plan!"

"No, it's not. Now stop arguing with me because I already said no and that answer's not going to change."

"I think I would rather have you come with me than get involved in any plans with these guys, Crystal." Jewel Man went up to Crystal and placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her a couple of steps away from her master. "Let the fighter-bots handle this."

"You don't even know my plan! It's really good!" Crystal Bot turned back to her boss, hoping for a better answer. "Come on, please? I took all the precautions!"

"It's too risky." Bass growled in a way that let her know very well that if she knew better, she would stop pestering him. "Go hang out with Top Man here for all I care."

The shiny guy-bot glared at Bass, his scowl warning Bass. "Could you at least refer to me by my actual name? I'm much more competent than that Top Man ever was."

"Uh-huh, sure." Bass indifferently stared at his fingernails, leaning further back in his chair. "Which is why you work at a jewelry shop and not something at least remotely dangerous."

"Some of us were designed for tasks a bit more complex than shooting at each other-"

"Stop it, you two." Mega Man said. "We can't argue with each other, not now. I know life seems to be going on like normal, but we never know if Dr. Cain is going to strike. Jewel Man, you're a good fighter, so even though you'll be at work, make sure to keep your sensors ready just in case. Hey, Crystal Bot, I'm sure you have great scanners. You could help too."

Crystal Bot opened her mouth to speak, uncertain now that Mega Man was the one suggesting the idea. She glanced first over at Bass, who shrugged. Once he noticed her, anyway. His fingernails seemed to have captivated his attention.

"Um, okay. I can help out my dad." Sonata clutched Jewel Man's arm, and he smiled down at her. "Let's go! Oh hey, there's Proto-kun!"

All eyes went over to the laboratory's southwards door, and there indeed was Proto Man, as stealthy as ever. He froze at the mention of his name. Any of the others might have mistaken it for shyness or uncertainty, but it was really his own fear. If Crystal Bot was there, then so was Bass. Fortunately the task of getting whatever random junk might prove to be under his nails seemed more important to Bass than even the arrival of his target. Also fortunately, Crystal's tone was cheerful. If Bass had told her anything, then there was no way the girl-bot fearful of death could be so happy about him.

His family certainly was. Auto gave a cheer, lifting up his head from his work and posing with one of his paper fans. Roll immediately clapped her hands and rushed forward to greet him. And Mega Man smiled, waiting as he let his sister have the first hug. Proto Man focused his face, letting his mouth slip up into one of this classic, slight smiles. Everything was fine, for now.

"Blues!" Roll squealed as she threw her hands around his neck. "You're back!"

"Someone has to keep an eye out for you."

Proto Man managed to return the hug, though he was far from used to embraces. Roll did let him go after a bit, and he approached the others with a readiness to get to work. That, however, was interrupted by Jewel Man, who made sure to shake his hand before he got another hug-attack, this one from Crystal Bot.

"I'm not sure I like being this popular..." Proto Man pushed Crystal Bot away. "It hasn't been that long since you saw me. And stole my shield."

"Aw, I gave it back..."

"No, I took it back." Blues let one of his dark glances go over to Bass, who still didn't care. "Jewel Man, watch out for this one."

He had actually been talking about Crystal, but Jewel Man seemed to think that he was referring to the dark robot. He gave Bass a determined glare as he responded, "Don't I know it. Alright, Sonata, let's head out. My shift at work starts soon and I need to talk to my boss first."

"Just a minute, _Ahbohjee_. I need to get something."

Crystal Bot waved her hand at Bruce, and he at once fluttered off and pulled three chips out of her hood. One was red, another yellow, and the last blue. Bruce placed these in Sonata's hand before returning to the crystal orb that made up her shoulder. Crystal Bot at once headed for her master, holding out the yellow chip for him. Next she gave the red chip to Proto Man and the blue one to Rock. Bass plugged his in right away and started downloading, but Mega Man was more reluctant.

"These are your Cain-bot powers from the last time you defeated them." she explained. "They'll help you beat them again."

"That's illegal!" Rock exclaimed. "We're supposed to get rid of the robot master powers once their team is defeated!"

"Yeah, I know." she scoffed. "But it's clear that the team _isn't _defeated, so you can use them. I checked the laws and they don't say you can't reinstall the powers if they come back."

Proto Man seemed undisturbed by the idea. He shrugged and stuck the chip into his neck. "That's right. My powers were the algorhythm dynamo and the sight cannon. Not bad."

Mega Man, still reluctant, winced. He glanced over at Roll, but she just shrugged. Her eyes told him her true opinion. _Take whatever precaution you can to stay safe_. That did it for Rock, and he took a deep breath and installed the powers.

"Hey, the echelon heatshock isn't on here." Mega Man complained. "I did defeat him."

"Yeah well, Forte-kun had the power first." Crystal Bot smirked, her bird seeming to laugh along with her. "You were stuck under all that brick and couldn't get the weapon."

"Besides, all the other powers I have suck." Bass said. "Signal Man's is weak, psycho pulse has no range, and the emit shield doesn't attack."

"I guess so." Mega Man checked out the powers he did have. "Um, power bullet, and epic win. I guess I can work with those."

"You gave double the powers to your own boss, I see." Proto Man accused Crystal, only mildly serious (it wasn't as if being strict with her helped).

"Well, yeah, of course I did." Crystal laughed. "But if you tell me all your sneaky Proto Man secrets, I'll help you out!"

As much as he wanted to scowl, Proto Man was by then far used to displaying expressions that had nothing to do with how he actually felt. There were many secrets he didn't dare tell, and he didn't appreciate the joke. And Proto Man certainly didn't dare look over to where Bass was sitting. All anyone saw was just a wry smile, mild amusement at the silly girl-bot.

"Okay, fine, be that way." she waved her hand in pretended indifference. "Alright, Bruce, stay here on my shoulder, okay? I know you don't like teleportation, but it won't hurt. I promise!"

"Uh...Crystal," Jewel Man touched her arm to de-stabilize her teleport field. "Why don't you...not bring Bruce? He's a very mischevious bird and I think he likes shiny things about as much as you do. Only he doesn't have self-control. Perhaps he could help out in the lab...?"

Crystal Bot frowned. "But I could make him be good!"

"I'm sorry, dear. My boss isn't exactly enthusiastic about bringing anyone to work. I convinced her to let you come, but I'm afraid that a little mechanical bird would test her patience. Besides, wouldn't he rather help Bass?"

"Keep that thing away from me." Bass growled. "It can go bug Auto. Now get out of here and stop bothering us. We're working here."

The girl-bot unhappily sent Bruce off to Auto, where the pipi promptly landed on his head. Auto, however, had no pipi-phobia, and was perfectly happy to let the bird sit there. Crystal Bot frowned at her boss and waved at Proto Man as she and Jewel Man teleported out; two shiny beams shot for the roof and disappeared out into the city of Monstropolis. Relieved, Proto Man turned to the others.

"I've been looking over the shipping processes lately." He told his brother. "It appears that along with the destruction of Auto's shop, several viruses have been affecting the computers of shipping companies. With the type of viruses these are, I can only guess that Dr. Cain is behind it. I'm going to go out again and see what kind of tracks Cain left behind."

"I've got Team 5 around the city patrolling tonight, Napalm, Gyro, Charge, and Stone Man." Mega Man said. "The others are still on the space station. It's not much, but between all of us I can make sure to at least know where Cain is going to hit first."

"Good." Proto Man nodded, admiring his brother's thinking. "I'll be watching."

"Wait!" Roll exclaimed. "Don't go anywhere! Not without some supplies, I mean. I'll get you some E tanks! Be right back! Come on, Dub."

Blues couldn't help but smile again as his sister and her little assistant-bot dashed out of the lab. Roll was always so sweet.

"My main worry is Zero." Mega Man said. "I'm not sure what Dr. Cain would want with him. Blues...why didn't you tell me about Zero?"

His brother shifted uncomfortably, frowning a bit. "You have a lot of work to do here in Monstropolis. I was hoping that Bass could handle this on his own so that you could keep on managing this city. I didn't count on Dr. Cain being interested in Zero rather than just attacking here. Now I wish I had said something. I thought Bass could have found Zero, but I guess he couldn't..."

Forte didn't appear to be listening, but he was. Mega Man was facing his brother, so as Proto Man spoke he was the only one that could see Bass pull a zip drive out of his armor. It was tied to a cord, and Bass swung it gently in his hand from side to side where Proto Man could see. With that, all he had to do was direct a very poignant stare at the loner robot, and Proto Man got the idea. He didn't have to guess what was on that zip drive. His lips tightened, the only sign showing on his face that he was frustrated.

"It's done with now." Blues said almost hastily. "We'll just have to work from here. With any luck, Cain's hatred of robots will mean that he'll destroy Zero rather than anything else."

Mega Man wasn't clueless. He turned curiously back at Bass to see what was happening, but the dark robot had already tucked the drive back into his armor, sitting in a more or less relaxed position with a "So what are you looking at me for?" expression on his face. Uncertain, Mega Man blinked a bit and just turned back to his brother. The slight downward turn of Proto Man's lip was plenty enough to convey his annoyance with Bass.

"Will you two just stop it and get along? I never really understood why there was so much trouble between you two." Mega Man shook his head. "Anyway, I think it's best to go out into the city to watch out for Dr. Cain's robots. I want to be ready for anything!"

Proto Man was still glaring a bit at the dark robot, not that anyone could tell from the other side of the shades. "That's not exactly how I operate. I'd like to anticipate Cain as much as possible before anything happens. Could you get me what you know about the doctor? If I have enough information, I can figure something out."

"Right!" Rock nodded, always glad to help. "The government sent me some data on him just yesterday..."

Mega Man went off to go talk to Auto at his workstation, leaving the other robots alone. Proto Man suspected that he already had anything that the government may have sent about Dr. Cain (he had been doing a lot of his nosing around), but that wasn't the real purpose of his request. He glanced back, waiting until Mega Man was into converstation with Auto before he spoke.

"Bass," Proto Man knew it was better to try to remain calm. "You said I have a week. I really hope that for the last week I'm alive you could actually _not_ hold this over my head."

Bass finally sat up, his dark eyes focused with hate on Proto Man. He had never liked Proto Man - how could such a pathetic, obsolete robot be tolerable? - and as he stared it even looked like black circles were under his eyes.

"I just spent the last several hours trying to track down the idiots that stole Zero, and after I got here I had to spend an hour being lectured by my stupid ethics agent for letting you go." Forte was sinister, his voice barely above a growl. "After that nonsense do you really think I'm going to spill the beans now and have to put up with Rock's crap? _You _can shut up about Zero and what I should have done in Russia. Got it?"

"Fine. I'll stop." Proto Man was curt. "Forgive me for wanting to actually improve your blunt methodolgy."

Bass stood up, giving a long look behind Proto Man as he approached. Blues didn't turn around. He figured that Mega Man was coming towards them again, disc in hand with the information Proto Man requested. There was no way that they could pretend they hadn't been talking.

"I'm not in Rock's stupid lab for my health, I actually tracked some of Cain's losers out here. Here's where I lost track of them." Bass converted his first finger into a zip drive and promptly stuck it into Proto Man's neck. "If you can find something with this, then good for you."

Proto Man began to wish that he had wireless adaptors. It was awkward for Bass to plug directly into his neck, and he found that he didn't really like standing that close to him. But at least Rock wouldn't know what they were talking about. And at least Bass' processors were fast enough that it didn't take that long. Mega Man handed his disc to Blues once Bass was out of the way. Proto Man loaded it out of politeness, but just as suspected, he learned nothing new.

"Thank you." Proto Man said. "Now go. Don't let me keep you from protecting Monstropolis."

Mega Man was reluctant, and it showed all over his adorable little face. "I wish you would come with me."

"It's not really in my skill set to fight like you do, Rock." Proto Man could only smile. "I've got to help you in my own way. Besides, Bass here can always go."

"What? No, Bass wouldn't want to come. He can't be seen in public with a 'dweeb' like me." Mega Man laughed and turned to the robot he spoke of. "I'm sure Reyes has got specific things for you to do, right?"

"Just one." Bass bared his perfectly sharp fangs, slouching as he growled. "To stay in Monstropolis in case Cain shows up and help stop them."

Mega Man couldn't help but let out a little laugh, and Bass' evil glare refused to forgive him for it. He did feel bad for Bass, in a weird sort of way. Their years of rivalry hadn't just disappeared, and they hadn't so much as spoken from the time of Dr. Light's funeral until Kalinka's party. They were not friends, and even though Mega Man hoped they would be some day, he was still sensitive to how Bass felt. There was no way he would want to go fight crime with Rock, and Rock didn't expect him to. Apparently the government did, and if Bass ever wanted to be trusted, he had to obey.

Perhaps the jealousy would have gone away if Bass had found and destroyed Zero. From what Mega Man had learned, Zero had the power to destroy basically anything he wanted to, even Mega Man. The blue bomber didn't have an ego, but he didn't believe he could be defeated by anything Wily built. After all, hadn't he done well so far? But of course Bass would want to be able to destroy a robot that could possibly kill his old rival. It would in so many ways heal a lot of Bass' ego issues: it would prove his strength, show Wily and the world that he was indeed a robot to be reckoned with, and repay Mega Man for saving his life. Rescuing Bass from his master's wrath by far the most insulting thing he had ever done to him, and that was even counting the many times Rock had shot the dark robot straight in his face.

That was why Mega Man frowned disapprovingly at his brother. It wasn't nice for him to be so smug about Bass' situation. Mega Man tried to figure out the way to present the idea in a better light to Bass. The gears and circuits of his mind worked very fast.

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed. "It'll be great for you be an example to Team 5. They try their hardest, but they really need an expert around, and they always seem to listen to you more than they would me."

That seemed to work a little bit. In any case, Bass seemed a little less likely to curse or growl.

_That's my brother._ Proto Man thought, amused. _Always able to make even the worst bullcrap sound true. He's too kind._

"We better get going. I think I have to report in to the mayor." Mega Man said. "Why don't you go over to where Napalm Man is and check on him before you go and search? I'm always afraid he's going to set something on fire."

"Fine." To Bass, everything that Mega Man was saying sounded suspiciously like orders, and he let his eyes narrow a bit. "Fine. I'll be out there. Just send me a signal if you find Cain first."

"Got it!"

The two robots teleported out, Bass first. Mega Man made sure to hug his brother before he too disappeared as a flying blue bolt. Proto Man was slightly reluctant to leave. Besides waiting for Roll (why was it taking her so long to show up with the E tanks? Didn't she know where everything was?), he wanted to get one last look at Dr. Light's laboratory. It fufilled his expectation; it still gave him a sense of dread, filling him with dark emotions and shame. As much as the place had been remodeled since he had last lived there, the place still reminded him of his youngest days and how he had gone so astray from what his creator had in mind for him. Blues had hoped that this one last look would change his perspective, and he would have some sense of nostalgia, but alas, it was not to be. The same old images of his past, the lonliness and the disappointment he had experienced, all still haunted him. It was the sort of thing that made him want to believe in ghosts, even if ghosts were just emotions come to life in the form of flying sheets.

Proto Man found himself wandering through the lab, past repair table and computer. It was still a cheery place, despite all of the technology. Roll always did her best to make the place feel like home, and Blues knew better than to look for dust. In the far corner, something caught his attention. It was a something, a big something, covered up in a blue tarp. Proto Man approached it curiously, reaching out to pull back the covering.

"What? Oh no you don't!"

Proto Man dodged the fan thrown at him, surprised to find that Auto was hurrying his way, still hauling a little pipi on his head. The jolly repair-bot approached with a teasing gleam in his eye and a waving finger.

"You can't see that, it's your Christmas present!" Auto merrily scolded. "So you just stay away from that. You'll get it soon enough! You have to be here for Christmas this year, alright?"

The loner robot pulled his hand away, forcing his mouth upwards into a smile and wondering how in the world Auto was fooled by it. He wasn't going to be here for Independence Day, much less Christmas. But all the same, there was no need to cause concern.

"Alright." Proto Man, the perfect actor, replied. "I'll do that."

-t-

"Eeee! I love your shop!" Crystal Bot squealed. "It's so nice!"

It was. This was no corner shop in the mall, but a grand building off of Harrison Road. There were many sections to the store, even a section for the cuter clown jewelry at the front entrance. But as you went further into the store, you would see the real gems and shine. Bracelets, necklaces, and of course rings each shone from their various displays around the room. Crystal's favorite area was the birthstone gift section, where everything from garnet to blue zircon was arranged in their exact twelve positions.

The store shone with light and gem, so much so that Grand Gems had to arrange each display to make sure that customers weren't overwhelmed by the glitz of it all. Of course Jewel Man was the brightest thing in the store, with each of his pink gems shined perfectly. He was the mascot of the place besides being a master jeweler, so he had to look the best.

"Isn't it though?" Jewel Man was always proud of his store. "Mrs. Twain runs a fine shop. She's quite the lady. She should be here soon, and I think it would do good for you to meet her."

Jewel Man didn't mention that half of the reason he wanted Crystal Bot and Mrs. Twain to meet was because the human was ladylike and Sonata was not. Indeed, Crystal Bot looked like an overgrown girl as she looked over the birthstone display, giddily going from month to month.

"I wish I knew when I was first activated." Crystal said, her eyes glowing just as much as the jewelry she admired. "That way I'd know my birthstone."

"You forget, I helped build you so I know when you were activated." Jewel Man directed her over to the sixth month. "Here we are, June. Your birthstone is pearl or alexandrite. Now, alexandrite is a lovely gem, and it actually changes color. It's green normally, but when exposed to a glowing light it becomes red."

"It's so wonderful!" Crystal squealed more, staring down at the stone he pointed out. "Oh, Jewel Man _Ahbohjee_, you're so cool! You have such a great job."

Looking up from the display, Crystal Bot carefully held her hands behind her back in a very emphasized innocent way. "So you were going to show me how this all works? I thought you shaped the gems here by laser yourself."

Jewel Man grinned. While he appreciated her enthusiasm, he always knew her motives: learning. There was no odd piece of science or technology she didn't want to know about and expoit in her work. And there Jewel Man stopped grinning. He knew how much she cared about upgrading Bass, and he knew that somehow everything she learned was going to be for his benefit. Jewel Man wished that Crystal Bot preferred working with someone who wasn't a fighter-bot and didn't always call him "Top Man" all the time.

_Of course, if she is interested enough in jewelry, maybe I can get her to change her mind..._

"Well, I know you like that sort of thing." Jewel Man finally answered. "So I guess you can. Besides, I'd feel like you were missing out if you didn't learn to craft the perfect bracelet. Perhaps you can even build some upgrades for yourself for once."

"Oh, I like upgrading Forte-kun better." Crystal Bot laughed, completely missing Jewel Man's pained flinch. "Hm...I don't know, maybe if I was more powerful he wouldn't make me learn to fight so much. He's really bossy lately about me learning to fight good. It's getting really annoying."

"Ugh, you shouldn't have to learn to fight if you don't want to." The guy-bot said. "Or at all. Which is why you are going to need a more civilized trade, young lady. Oh! In comes a customer. You be patient and wait for me, alright? Craig isn't here yet, so I have the sales floor for now. Once he arrives, I'll let you come in to the back, alright?"

"Okay! I'll just wait here!"

There was no end of shiny things to look at, especially not now that Crystal Bot knew her birthstone. She could go from display to display, joyfully admiring each piece and deciding which one she liked best. Jewel Man helped his human customer, a man looking for an engagement ring, and he emphasized more than usual the fact that Great Gems could essentially design a ring for him. If he ordered one, then Jewel Man would get to show Crystal the process from beginning to end.

The man was looking at several rings in the display, and Jewel Man took the chance to look up. Crystal Bot had wandered her way to the front of the store where the cheaper pieces were kept, but she admired them with no less enjoyment than she did the high-quality gems. Jewel Man's gave a wrinkled smile, a little amused that Crystal Bot had no eye for stones.

_Oh well, she can learn. _Jewel Man returned to his work spoke to his customer. "Do you know what your girlfriend likes? Would she prefer more modern or classical design?"

"I...I really don't know." The blonde man rubbed his scruffy chin, feeling a lot more insecure about the decision. "I really need to get a good look at your selection. Hm...I don't think I'll decide today. Marcy's best friend has known her for twelve years, so I think I'm going to have to come back with her before I can choose. Sorry."

"It's quite alright. Just make sure that you decide your price point, and I can work with you on whatever design you would like. Please take your time."

There was a time to talk to a customer, and a time to let them browse. Jewel Man always knew what time was what, so he scooted on from behind the display, a little anxious about pulling Crystal Bot away from the inferior stock. Getting attached to clown jewelry would not do.

"Isn't this flower brooch so cute?" Crystal Bot pointed to a front display as her "stepfather" approached. "I like it a lot!"

"Eh, sweetheart, that's not exactly our best brooch right there." Jewel Man ever so gently tugged on her arm - he also knew how to move people and make them think that they had chosen to move. "Why don't we go and look at that alexandrite again? If you're a good girl today, I'll buy for you something with your birthstone in it."

Crystal Bot gasped. "Wow, really? You're the best dad ever!"

"No problem at all, dear. It's about time you had something nice." Jewel Man began to lead her away from the front. "Ugh, I was hoping that man would let me design a ring for him, but he has absolutely no clue what his intended likes, not even if she prefers a gold or silver band! Hmph! I don't even see why he's bothering to propose if he knows that little about his Marcy. That marriage won't last, I'll tell you."

Crystal Bot wasn't listening, and she wasn't moving. She was looking out of the front windows, distracted by something. She innocently pointed outwards at the street.

"_Ahbohjee_, that weird robot is looking at me." she said.

Jewel Man turned toward the window and immediately froze. He wasn't a fool; he paid attention to Mega Man's work and he knew what enemies Mega Man faced. Monstropolis was hardly a safe city at times, and every wise robot knew to anticipate a Wily (and now Cain) attack. Jewel Man pushed Crystal behind him, ready to engage his shield. Frantic Man was outside, staring at the both of them through the front window. He had to do something about it.

"Call Mega Man!" Jewel Man didn't take his eyes off the enemy. "I'll distract him!"

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Raise your hand if you remember Armor Core Antivirus. :D

- Just in case you forgot, pipies are those little annoying birds in MM2 that hatch out of the eggs the mother birds drop on you. _Ahbohjee_ is father in korean.

- Crystal Bot's birthstone reflects when I first posted Okkusenman on fanfiction net.

Character profiles!

=====Jewel Man

**"Doesn't it just dazzle?"**

Good point: detail oriented  
Bad point: mildly conceited  
Likes: new experiences  
Dislikes: disruptive people

Ah, good ol' Jewel Man. He was first envisioned by Dr. Light of course for the jewelry industry. During his first few years, Jewel Man ended up working in the mines, and this angered Dr. Light because he designed Jewel Man to work with people, not in a shaft in some dank underground structure. Jewel Man himself wasn't bitter about working the mines, and it ended up helping him become a better salesman.

The day came when he was set to expire (expiration laws for robots were beginning to be put into effect at that time) and ends up being captured by Dr. Wily and used to fight Mega Man. Crystal Man, however, had different plans. Crystal Man considered Jewel Man a sort of rip-off of himself, and was very jealous that Jewel Man was more powerful. That made him secretly use Jewel Man to steal plans for Mega Man X from Light Laboratories, completely without telling Dr. Wily.

Unlike other Team 9 members, Jewel Man managed to know he was being manipulated by Wily and Crystal Man despite the fact he couldn't do anything about it. Crystal Man's work on a daughter intruigued him, however, and he found himself attached to the then incomplete Crystal Bot. Crystal Man didn't like this, so he programmed Jewel Man to repress his memories of being involved in the project and let him finish Wily's scheme during MM9. After Jewel Man was defeated by Mega Man, he went back to his store, not remembering much about his time as a bad guy. A little later Crystal Man reappeared and tricked Jewel Man into carrying a back-up copy of Crystal Bot's personality AI, among other things. If you read Okkusenman, you know all about this, and how he managed to save Crystal Bot when Wily deleted her AI and turned her into a mechaniloid.

Since then, Jewel Man has been continuing his life just as happily as before. He's good friends with Splash Woman and Tornado Man, and on good terms with all of his Team 9 friends. He's a little distrusting of Team 5, but he knows that they don't mean to rejoin Wily. He and Wave Man get along especially well. Jewel Man feels very attached to Crystal Bot, though at times he's suspicious that Crystal Man programmed him to want to watch out for her.

=====Clown Man

**"Some clowns short of a circus."  
**Good Point: Good sportsman  
Bad Point: Extreme emotions  
Like: Trapeze  
Dislike: Everything  
Japanese Data  
Good Point: Good at sports  
Like: Giant swing  
Dislike: Countless

Dr. Wily is the least attached to his Team 8 robots out of all his creations, and this includes Team 5 (up until their betrayal). He was especially disappointed in how Grenade and Search Man, both built directly for destruction, failed to stop Mega Man. He's not much of a fan of Clown Man, but he at least feels that this robot was a burst of inspiration in certain ways, especially his ability to swing through the air and be very manuverable. Clown Man was the second Team 8 robot to be built (behind Tengu Man) and leftover parts were used in the construction of Frost Man. However, at the end of it all, he found himself wondering how Clown Man was supposed to defeat Mega Man and gave him an electrical ability.

Clown Man is rascally, and often got on the other robot master's nerves as he swung around instead of taking his work seriously. He was only in the robot museum for a brief period of time after his scheme, though was caught again shortly after MM10. He was freed during Okkusenman, and was destroyed by Mega Man when the last Skull Castle was invaded. Signal Man found his parts after the dust settled and used him to build Frantic Man.

When it comes to me as a writer, I really wish Clown Man was stronger. I mean, they have that evil energy plotline going on, and it would have been really great if that meant these robot masters would be harder rather than easier - these were some of the easiest robot masters in the series. Clown Man could have been the next Quick Man if that were the case. Well, a creepier Quick Man, but yeah.

So peeps, a certain perfect runner on youtube (look for "Cut Man perfect run" on youtube) rated the difficulty of the robot masters and their levels as he played the games, and I took the liberty to do an average of his ratings and figure out which games were the hardest and which the easiest. Notedly, these don't include Duo fights, Proto Man fights, or any of the Wily levels. It's just the robot masters and their respective levels. I posted this list up on my blog, the link to which you can find on my profile page. I've also been reviewing Mega Man music on my blog and I'm already up to MM8. Check it out if you feel like.


	9. The Fires of Monstropolis

Mega Man's audio recievers were alert. Despite the fact that he had Bass' and half of Team 5's help, he still didn't have as much coverage as he would like over the city. He was worrying too much, he told himself. After all, the police network could call him at any time, and Monstropolis was on high alert ever since the problems with shipping had begun. Mega Man cruised over the city on Rush jet to make sure he could scan as much of the city at once as possible.

"I sure hope we can stop Dr. Cain before too much damage is done, Rush!" Mega Man said. "It's frustrating to have to save the city so many times over from big threats like this. I can't believe it's come to making buildings that can withstand the crash of a robot."

Rush barked in reply merrily, refusing to allow his master's thoughts to be so dark.

"Ha, you're right, everything will be fine." Mega Man laughed at little, but his concern didn't entirely fade from his eyes. "I just...you know. It would be nice if my home wasn't the target of a maniac anymore. There are times when I'd really like to do something other than just save Monstropolis all the time. I'd really like to build Monstropolis up and make it better with new technologies. I want to be a part of the constructive process, not just destruction all the time..."

"Tweet-tweet!"

"Gah!"

Only Mega Man's near perfect instincts kept him from jumping clear off of Rush. That and the fact that only one pipi was flying alongside the red dog. Mega Man took a deep breath and settled himself. He wished that the little brown birds didn't bother him so much. After all, what was one little bird against him? Then again, just hearing one of those little tweets completely broke into his concentration and reminded him not only of being surrounded by a flying flood of birds, but also instant death beams, disappearing block obstacles over glowing lava, and fighting Quick Man.

"Sheesh, Bruce, I wish you wouldn't do that to me!" he fussed. "I know you're bored because you aren't with Crystal Bot right now, but she's at Jewel Man's work and he can't have a little bird distracting him. His boss wouldn't like it."

Bruce tweeted more. He complained about being left alone in the lab because he was bored and wanted something to do. Mega Man couldn't understand his bot assistant code, but Rush translated it for him, turning the high pitched tweets into deep barks.

"Okay, you can go to Great Gems." Mega Man sighed. He moved his hand to run it through his hair, but this wasn't really possible with his helmet in the way. "But don't actually go inside. You stay in the area and keep an eye on the city. Let me know if anything is happening, alright?"

"Tweet!"

Rock sighed with relief as the little pipi flew away. No matter how long it had been since Wily made him face those little birds, those things always seemed to give him the willies. And on a night like tonight he couldn't afford any sort of distraction. As if something horrible had happened in the past couple of minutes, Mega Man got the urge to call around and see what was going on for the rest of the Monstropolis defenders.

_" - Gyro Man, come in. Is anything happening in your area? - "_

_" - No. - " _It wasn't long before the green propellor-bot answered. _" - It's all quiet this way. Stone Man and me have this area covered. I haven't heard anything from Napalm and Charge Man, but they're supposed to call me if they spot anything. I really hope something happens soon! All this waiting is getting on my nerves. - "_

_" - Tell me about it. I just wish this nonsense was over. Well, call me for back up if you need me. I think I need to check on Bass. He's out here by himself and I don't want him getting caught in a trap or something. - "_

_" - Bass is here? Hmph. He better not be a glory-hog. Some of us want a piece of the action too. - "_

_" - ...Gyro Man, remember what Mr. Reyes told you. It's not about getting to fight, it's about protecting the innocent. - "_

_" - I know, I know. Gyro Man out. - "_

The transmission was cut. Mega Man sighed. Anyone could tell from Gyro Man's tone that he didn't understand at all. Mega Man didn't want to be judgemental of anyone, especially since they were the ones that had to recover from being Wily's robots, but they were going to need to change for the better at some point. How long does it take to really and truly become a good guy? There was much more to it than simply fighting baddies.

Mega Man flew over to the western coast of Monstropolis. Even as the sound of the ocean came to his ears, he relaxed. It was such a nice sound, and it absorbed his stresses and pulled them out with the tide. Mega Man felt privileged to live in a place like Monstropolis. There were so many different landscapes and geographies: there was the city itself, the rolling country surrounding, and just off in the distance were mountains. Mega Man liked the ocean the best, though in the back of his mind he figured that he would say the same thing about any area he approached. Monstropolis was a fine land.

His eyes glittered as he spotted the dark waves - already nightfall was on the city, and the ocean was a mass of black mystery lapping up on the sand. The main pier wasn't far. Though normally Dr. Cain wasn't the one terrorizing Monstropolis on a daily basis, Mega Man always felt the need to check the pier. Crime lived on even without mad scientists threatening everyone, and at any given time there would be all manner of lesser criminals trying to smuggle things in and out of through normal citizens who lived near the coast.

The area was very quaint, with a quiet street and a few bars open down the way. The streetlights were already on, creating a gloomy and yet almost friendly environ on the calm road.

"Well, Rush, at least people are staying safe and not running around on the street. Go ahead and set down here, boy."

Mega Man landed and stepped off Rush, letting the dog convert back into his normal form. The bomber got a good look around. Everything seemed peaceful as ever. The sounds that hit his ears were only the ocean waves and the dim noises and song from the Irish pub around the corner. There was nothing quite like an old drinking song to create a friendly atmosphere.

Only Mega Man was worried, and no amount of Irish brew poetry could distract him completely from his concerns. Bass wasn't anywhere to be found. He told himself that the dark robot could handle any trap on his own, but for some reason he felt concern for Forte. Surely nothing had happened to him. Couldn't Bass handle it? Of course, Rock was half suspicious that Bass thought he could handle far more than he truly was able to. If the worst happened, Mega Man knew he couldn't rely on the dark robot to call for help.

Walking down Turner Avenue, Mega Man turned out of the coastal area to where the city ended and there was sand instead of street. The sun's last rays were almost dipped below the horizon, and this was when Mega Man finally saw Bass. The dark robot was now standing on the edge of the pier, staring out into the water. He stood there like a statue, his only movement being the slight turning of his head out into the distance and deep. The transmission zips flying through the air made it clear that much more was going on than simple looking.

Rock was too distant to see exactly what Bass was doing, but there wasn't any reason he couldn't ask. Mega Man approached the pier, curiously. He didn't notice when his foot first stepped on the wooden structure, but the instant it did, the plank beneath him creaked.

_**Bow-bow-bow!**_

Mega Man dove to the side to dodge the shots headed for him. They had to settle for tearing holes into the planks instead of the bomber, who was barely hanging on to the side of the pier in time to stop himself from falling into the water. Rush barked violently, growling at the offender: Bass. He still grinned, despite a meager act to feign a lack of hostile intent.

Rock got back to his feet, purely frustrated as his arms lifted him from his perilous perch. "Bass! It's just me!"

"How was I supposed to know that?" The fin-headed robot was smugly blew at his smoking plasma buster. "Maybe you shouldn't sneak up on me. For all I know you could have been one of those idiot Cain-bots."

"You know better than that!"

"Do I really?" Bass let his grin sour and fade into a firm line. "So what the hell are you doing here? I've got this covered."

"I just wanted to check on you." Mega Man pulled a chunk of wood out from his armor, thinking that someone better get some work done on the wood if they wanted the pier to last much longer. "The others are paired up, so I figured I wouldn't leave you by yourself."

Bass immediately scowled. "I'm fine. I've got this covered. You can go now."

Mega Man hardly noticed what Bass was saying. As rude as it was for him not to pay attention, he couldn't help but recognise the place. "Hey, haven't we been here before? This is where you were fighting Psycho Man last year."

"Eh, yeah." Bass answered with a sour grunt. He gave up on getting Mega Man to leave; he knew the bomber too well to expect him to just go away now that he was interested. "Crystal Bot found a submarine that Cain had running around, and it was out here in this area. You saw the report. I've got Treble looking for it now, but no luck so far. I can see the main shipping port from here in case something happens up there."

Mega Man nodded. It was a sound plan for what little information they had. Hearing that Treble was around, Rush wagged his tail and rushed forward onto the pier. He barked with excitement at the water, sniffing until he found the right direction to the purple wolf. He wagged his tail harder, not noticing the foul look Bass gave him. Rush just barked into the ocean to say hello. Three nasty snarls echoed right back. Rush whined, and his tail settled down with a plop on the pier beneath him. He just wanted to be Treble's friend.

"That's actually a good idea. Nobody found Dr. Cain's submarine before." Mega Man said, not paying his dog much attention for the moment. "But there's no reason to think that it would still be here. The police searched it before."

"Hell, I've got to do something. It's not like there's anything else going on." Bass eyed Rush, avoiding the temptation to kick him into the water. "I'm starting to think that Dr. Cain just wants us out here running around looking for one of his stupid plans."

Rock nodded, putting a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "That would make sense. I just hope Proto Man finds something. He always seems to somehow."

The mention of Proto Man got a funny look from Bass, one that Mega Man couldn't immediately discern. It wasn't hate, or even disdain (or at least mostly not). It was an odd sort of curiosity, the kind which appears on those around you when they are uncertain about something, but especially about you. Noticing Mega Man's reaction, Bass allowed his face to go into a more casual look of indifference. As much as he wanted to question this, there was no time for the blue bomber to ask.

"Ahahahaha!"

Both robots at once turned back toward the city as the evil, shuddering laughter grew ever louder. A robot neither of them had seen in a long time appeared, hovering in the air coming towards them (but not too close). It was the bright red shield-robot Emit Man. Already he had found an assortment of metal plates to float around him and block any pellets that the heroes shot at him.

He wasn't the only antagonist. Emit Man had brought with him several Wily-bots. Frost Man and Cold Man approached from each side of the Cain-bot, both of them ready to make things icy. Wind Man, warming up his propellors, ran up from their right. A splash from behind warned them that Aqua Man too was there, much to their disgust. The heroes got back to back defensively, desperately hoping Aqua Man wouldn't say it-

"It's...Aqua Man!" the annoying water-bot gushed, posing as he jumped onto the end of the pier (how it creaked under his weight!). "But since we're such good friends, you can just call me handsome guy!"

It was enough to make Mega Man shudder, and Bass thought he was going to be sick. Fortunately Emit Man wasn't too amused by the creepy water-bot either.

"Shut up, imbecile!" Emit Man cleared his throat and continued in a more dignified tone. "Now then, Mega Man, what say I clear up the mystery for you? Tonight, this fine April evening, is the last day of the glory age of robots! From this point forward, no more shall humanity be chained to its own creations! We robots of Doctor Nikola Cain are sworn to bring justice and end the perversion of machines! What starts today will not end until there is no robot greater than mechaniloids, if that!"

"Um, that wasn't really a mystery to me." Mega Man equipped his super armor. "I knew you guys felt that way already. It's not exactly a mystery to anyone who keeps up with the news."

"Erm...well, we're still going to beat you!" Emit Man's face was almost a pout, complete with gritted teeth. "You're going to lose. You think you're defending humanity, but you're really ruining it! These people are complacent! They just send you out to do the work that they should do for themselves!"

"Shouldn't Dr. Cain be the one out here fighting us then?" Bass snorted. "I mean, if he's not a hypocrite he should get his lazy butt in gear and actually fight for himself."

"Will you stop already?" Emit Man huffed, and if he hadn't been hovering he would have stomped his foot. "My master is not a fighter. He has more elegant methods of accomplishing his goals."

Mega Man wasn't really listening. Again his environment distracted him. Battle strategies ran through his head as he quickly considered which way to safely destroy all of the enemy robots. It then occured to him that the pier wasn't really located around anything important, especially since they were several yards away from the nearest buildings. Dr. Cain was trying to attack the robots, not humans.

_Since I don't have to protect anyone, this battle won't be as hard. _Mega Man smiled. "Hey Bass, there's an odd number of robots here."

"So what?"

"So that means there definitely won't be a tie." Mega Man's smile turned into a full out grin. "I bet I can destroy more of these guys than you."

"You did _not _just challenge me!" Bass guffawed loudly, lifting his busters. "You're on, Dweeb!"

"This isn't a game!" Emit Man shrieked. "I'm going to kill both of you!"

Both rivals dove into the water, and Rush wasn't far behind. They had to be quick to dodge all of the blade bombs that Emit Man shot out. That by no means ruined the high moods of either fighter-bot, and the challenge continued with cheer and a ridiculous number of buster pellets.

-t-

Gyro Man was bored. Unbelievably bored. He and Stone Man were patrolling the inner part of the city, and Gyro Man was really starting to regret choosing to hang out with Stone Man. Stone Man couldn't fly, and so that left the two no choice but to walk around. Occasionally Gyro Man took to the air to get a better perspective, but since he wasn't spotting anything, he just gave up and walked alongside Stone Man.

Stone Man had never cared too much (or at least not as much as Gyro Man) about becoming a great fighter and hero. Stone Man fought only when he needed to, and now that he had been upgraded, he was pretty good. The only trouble was he didn't have the tracking and awareness skills of his green friend. Gyro Man was afraid that something would happen to Stone Man if he didn't stay close by. It wasn't too hard to sneak up on the block-bot.

"Sheesh, something better happen..." Gyro Man stretched his arms then pretended to throw out a couple of his mini gyro blades. "I'm getting bored just walking around town."

Stone Man's long strides were hard to keep up with, so Gyro Man just hurried up. There were many streets in the vast city, and the tall skyscrapers kept the robots from being able to see too far in any direction. The propellor-bot had half a mind to just go fly upwards again to see what he could see. It was getting darker though, and the bright lights of the city would prevent him from using his nightvision. Tracking someone in that mess was a nightmare.

"You know, I really miss Guts Man." Stone Man said. "He was always such a fun guy. I wish he would have come with us when we left Wily."

"That's random." Gyro Man looked up at the block-bot. "What are you thinking about him for anyway? Nobody in Team 1 would leave Wily anyway. They got all the benefits."

"You should have let me ask him to come. Maybe because Guts Man was built by Dr. Light we could get him to come back to being a good guy."

"Stone Man, we're working here, and Guts Man is dead already." Gyro Man rolled his eyes. He didn't like talking about Team 1, or basically anything that reminded him of the days before he was a decent fighter. "Now let's think. Dr. Cain likes to fight robots and not humans because he thinks robots are a problem, right? So what in the world are we doing in the town? It's mostly humans here. Where's a target that only someone going after robots would fight?"

"Auto's shop." Stone Man answered. "But that's destroyed. Then there's Dr. Light's lab, only that's got really good security."

"There's got to be another place, or maybe they're looking for some way to be able to destroy the lab-"

Gyro Man froze. He heard something. Given that this was downtown Monstropolis, there was any number of cars going down the road, people laughing and talking, and just general sources of city noise. Even through all that Gyro Man couldn't shake the feeling that he had heard something.

"What?" Stone Man was confused. "Is there a way to-"

"Shut up!"

The two robots were silent, and Gyro Man heard it again.

"It's coming from...from..."

With an almost silent _whiwp_ through the air, a bullet flew right into Gyro Man's neck. Only the luckiest of movements on his part saved him from suffering anything worse than severed robotic skin and a gash in his armor. The shot alarmed several humans nearby, and they began to scatter. Immediately Stone Man jumped in front of Gyro Man. It wasn't futile; sniper-type robots alway had hard times getting through Stone Man's type of armor, though he did knock several dents in his orange stones.

"It's Sight Man! I just know it!" Gyro Man gasped, fingering his wound. "Quick! We've got to teleport and find him!"

Stone Man immediately tracked Sight Man's teleport coordinates. Apparently the Cain-bot had been too quick to leave and forgot to encode them. Both Team 5 bots teleported, and within five seconds they found themselves at...a truck stop? The poor place was barely recognisable. The gas station/diner combo building was half on fire - the gas station side, naturally - and it wouldn't be long before the other half was also consumed by flame. Humans fled the scene, all except for a couple of plaid-clad men furious at the status of their 18 wheeler trucks and cargo inside. Who wouldn't be if their trucks were burst apart as if by lightning, with all their inventory scorched black?

"What happened here?" Stone Man exclaimed. "All those-"

A beam of electric fury slammed right into the pavement in front of the reformed Wily-bots. The source of the powerful beam was easy to find: Psycho Man. This Cain robot was only tall because of his rapier-thin legs, which in their extended position lifted him several feet into the air. His round body was about the size of a normal robot master's, only round like the bottom of a pear. His armor was colored like a clown's outfit, with yellow and purple stripes - he even had a white frill color around his neck, as well as the three electric power orbs on his collar that produced his vicious attack. His face was little more than two huge bug eyes and a grate for a mouth.

Gyro Man was familiar with Psycho Man's design. He also knew that Psycho Man normally had two arms that were never attached to his body but held up by energy alone. Their absense meant that these arms had departed from him and turned into a miniature clown. He could hear the sound of firing from the other side of the diner, and could only hope that most of the humans had already escaped from the demented robot attacking them.

"Gyro Man has come to play!" a cheery Psycho Man chanted his jolly rhyme. "Won't Stoney Guy also stay? If you wait for my surprise, you really won't believe your eyes!"

"Huh?"

Gyro Man barely had time to be confused before Psycho Man sent out his next pulse. This one smacked straight into Stone Man, reducing him to blocks of stone on the pavement of the truck stop. The green robot was horrified, and sent out a swarm of his mini gyro blades to distract Psycho Man. Fortunately Stone Man could put himself back together, but it was evident from his shakiness that he hadn't gone undamaged.

"I'll get this guy!" Gyro Man started to spin his propellor as he pointed to the clown-bot. "You get the humans out of here!"

It wasn't as simple as that. From out of nowhere, Sight Man started firing again. Gyro Man barely managed to dodge these and carry himself into the air.

"I guess that means I'm going to get him!" Stone Man was not a weak robot, and he shot his fist out at Sight Man with the aid of his excellent sensors. "You'll pay for this, Sight Man!"

-t-

Charge Man gasped. "Napalm Man! Gyro and Stone Man are in trouble!"

The train robot and his purple companion were clear on the other side of town. Having guessed that Dr. Cain would be going after any form of product transportation (well, he _was _scrambling shipment company computers), Charge Man suggest that they look at the main train station. That was why the two found themselves wandering about the rails. The place was as calm as ever. Just the normal station with its few workers maintaining the office. A few people lounged about the front of the station, as it had its covered patio so that people could board a train in wet weather. There was nothing odd about the place, so Napalm Man was plenty excited when he heard Charge Man's news.

"Excellent!" Napalm Man managed to keep himself from firing his bombs into the air. "Let's go!"

"Not so fast. You have trouble of your own right here."

That too pleased Napalm Man's desires to fight, and he was jolly as he jumped around and pointed one of his shooters at the trees on the far side of the tracks. It appeared to be a calm forest, but that changed quickly. Out of the shadows stepped a large, green robot, one with huge blasters on his arms and a hulking body.

Charge Man circled around Napalm Man to get a look. "It's Commando Man!"

The train-bot seemed dismayed, but Napalm Man was only happy. Despite the fact that he was several years older than Commando Man, he always admired the younger robot and looked up to him. The Team 10 robot looked back at Napalm Man, wincing. It was almost as if he was ashamed, and it showed even through his heavily armored face that only showed angry eyes.

"Commando Man!" Napalm Man exclaimed, not without worry. "Oh no, you haven't been brainwashed by Dr. Cain, have you? Not you of all robots!"

Commando Man's eyes narrowed, and he angry stuck out his cannons to be ready to shoot. "I...I had no choice...Dr. Cain programmed me to follow his orders. Now I'm nothing but a stinking traitor! Just like you and your entire team. I once respected you, Napalm Man. I never figured that you would depart from our creator. At the very least my betrayal was not my choice! I never willingly abandoned my creator!"

"You think I had a choice?" Napalm Man didn't like accusations of being disloyal, and it showed in pained look. "Wily would have killed me and my entire team if we hadn't left! We had to do something to escape!"

"It is better to die as a loyal creation of Wily rather than live as a pathetic companion of _Mega Man_, our greatest enemy!" Commando Man shoved a cannon forward as if it were an accusing finger. "If your motives truly were about survival, you _liar_, then you should have just disappeared amongst the humans and made Wily's name feared on this earth! He would have taken you back!"

"Yeah, well maybe if he upgraded us once in a while we might have been able to do that! Besides, if I did go back to Wily then I would have turned out like you: brainwashed by a cyber thief! I'm my own robot, not a slave like you!"

"There will be no more words between us..." A sinister Commando Man came even closer, stepping over the empty railroad tracks with his ground shaking footsteps. "Only bombs!"

"Good. It's about time you actually attacked someone."

The dull, bored voice came from a white-armored robot, one that appeared further down the tracks. This creation was horrific. His entire head looked like a round of ammunition, and the angle of his head and sharp eyes made it look like he was constantly angry. Two holes in his chest and his abdomen were conduits of electronic and plasma energy, making this evil robot a very well armed monstrocity.

"I remember you." Napalm Man said. "You're that guy with the dumb white armor I fought in Alaska."

"And you're the periwinkle disaster." Bullet Man turned to Commando Man. "I thought I told you I didn't want to deal with _him_."

"You wanted to know where Team 5 would go, and Charge Man wouldn't fail to search this place." Commando Man shrugged, but other than that kept his dark eyes on the two reformed Wily-bots, especially the napalm fighter. "I don't decide who comes along."

"Hey! I'm not that predictable!" Charge Man turned completely red, blowing off puffs of steam. "You'll pay for that!"

Charge Man was headed straight for Commando Man, but as he charged he noticed that there were three homing torpedoes swirling through air, coming around and heading straight for him. He fired a shot of coal at them. This proved to be too much of a distraction, as Commando Man's bombs smacked right into him. It was lucky for Charge Man that he was still in his red mode, or else the bombs would have done a lot more damage than they did.

"You leave him alone and fight me! I've been itching for a rematch! I don't need Rock to come and rescue me from you!"

Napalm Man fired off his torpedos at Bullet Man as Charge Man went ahead and fought the Team 10 robot. Humans from the station began to run away, especially since Bullet Man was getting way too close to the building for comfort. Bullet Man wasn't able to dodge all of the torpedoes, but his laser fired back and really gave Napalm Man a run for his money. To make things worse, Bullet Man pulled up both of his arms and retracted his mechanical hands. Moments later, his entire body was flashing from the blasts of the bullets shooting out of his arms at a terrific rate.

Bulky Napalm Man wasn't by any means good at getting out of the way of such an onslaught. Taking several shots to the face, Napalm Man barely kept his balance. Even despite the new cracks in his armor, he managed to shoot his twin napalm bombs, one of which smacked right into Bullet Man - and the other smacked into the train station, setting it ablaze. Fire alarms filled the air, but none of the combatants seemed to notice. You wouldn't notice either if you were being run into or shot up with bombs and lasers.

The fight was certainly too intense for the train-bot to focus on anything besides Commando Man. As much as Charge Man liked to run into things, that was out of the question with his enemy. All that did was bring him straight into Commando Man's line of fire, and that indeed was only if Commando Man's ground poundings didn't throw him off of his feet. It was up to his coals to put a dent in the soldier-bot's defenses, and coal was hardly Commando Man's weakness.

"Napalm Man!" his Team 5 companion called out. "I need some help over here!"

The purple fighter was having luck. Napalm had a very adverse affect on Bullet Man, and the burning liquids all over him tore up his weapons systems. Bullet Man tried to run, but that only made him more suseptible to being shot again. The flames on him grew, and he knew he wasn't going to survive if he stayed any longer. Charge Man's shout distracted Napalm Man, so Bullet Man had only one chance to escape. Jumping into the air, he began to spin. His legs ran and twisted together with mechanical rumblings, and they became a rocket booster. With a burst of rocket power, he shot up into the air, arcing downwards and shooting by Napalm Man just like (if you'll pardon the pun) a bullet. The force of the air managed to stay the flames on him, reducing the fire outside of his armor. The tongues of burnination that had found a crack or an opening in his armor would have to be put out some other way.

"Aw crap, there's a lake out that way." Napalm Man complained, watching him zip off. "He'll be able to douse himself over there."

"Bullet Man!" Commando Man shouted. This stalled his fight with Charge Man, much to the latter's relief. "You coward! Don't leave me alone with the enemy!"

The transmission from Bullet Man wasn't encoded, so all three robots heard it clearly. _" - Oh shut up. You know I'm weak to Napalm Man and you brought me to him. Unintentionally? Please. You were trying to get rid of me. I always knew the master's programming wasn't strong enough on you. Good bye! - "_

_" - How was I supposed to know you're weak to Napalm Man? Encode your transmissions! Do you want the whole world to know? - " _If Commando Man had proper hands, he would have facepalmed. As it was, I suppose the closest thing you could call it is "facewristed" or "wristfaced", as he smacked a cannon against his head in indignance. "This is embarrassing. Never in my life have I had to put up with such a miserable excuse of a soldier. It's a tragedy for someone so well armed with magificent weapons to have no clue how to fight with dignity."

Charge Man couldn't help his laughter, completely scornful. Napalm Man, however, felt bad for Commando Man. He approached his former compatriot with sadness in his eyes, converting his napalm shooters back into hands as a sign of peace. Noticing Napalm Man approaching, Commando Man lowered his cannon and gave out a rumbling growl.

"Hey Commando," Napalm said, wanting to sound welcoming as possible. "You don't have to fight for Dr. Cain anymore. You don't have to fight alongside people you hate. Crystal Bot can remove all of his failsafes from you and everything. You can join us, and-"

"Join you?" Commando Man lifted his voice like a skilled orator with the voice of an earthquake. "You traitors of the great Dr. Wily? Only recently I heard how you ensured our creator's captivity by transferring him to another prison. If you had any true loyalty within you, you would go now at once and free him, only then offering to free me from the bonds of Dr. Fool. I once thought you were a good robot, Napalm Man, but I was wrong. It was a mistake for you to have been created. You and your filthy Team 5."

"But if you don't surrender, I have to kill you...you're too cool to die! Please, just come back with us to our lab. I can work everything out with the government. Come on, you remember all those days when we would always talk about making a weapons museum? You liked the idea as much as I do. You like telling people about their history. Don't you hate it when people forget their past and forget how the world came to this? You can be their teacher! The museum can become a reality!"

"Don't you talk to me about that." Commando Man hissed his words like a threat. "The Napalm Man I once knew is no more. Now if you have any kindness in you at all, shoot me and end my tretchery. I do not wish to serve Cain and his idiotic robots any longer. If I can die fighting a traitor like you, then I can be content."

But of course Commando Man's programming wasn't just going to let him stand there and take two napalm bombs to the head. The two fought like the warriors that they were, bomb versus bomb, artilery versus artilery. Napalm blasted Commando in the face, only for his opponent to jump into the air and knock him to the rocky and rail-y ground. Napalm Man rolled back to his feet and blasted away Commando Man's left cannon, but even one-armed Commando Man wasn't a joke. He was weary, but but no means weak.

Without warning, a red blur ran straight into Commando Man, crashing into him and tearing him apart. The charge kick was not his weakness, but his armor could only withstand so much. That done, Charge Man finally slowed and turned back into his regular orange color. That didn't mean that he wasn't angry, and he glared at Napalm Man with all the frustration he could muster up. He swung a finger over at the train station.

"Hello! Earth to Napalm!" Charge Man yelled. "The train office is just a little bit _on fire_ so I think it would be good if you decided you might want to try and put it out!"

That snapped the purple-bot out of it, and he finally looked around. Just like Charge Man said, the platform that once held the office and the loading station was all ablaze. Napalm Man continued to observe his surroundings, and was horrified to see the mess that he and indeed all of the combatants had made of the railroad tracks. Metal was bent and twisted everywhere like metal fingers reaching out of the earth. With all the oil spillings on the wooden cross-supports, little fires were popped up all around them. If they didn't stop it soon, then the woods on the other side of the tracks would be next to light up.

"Um...oops?"

-t-

Bass, on the other hand, was having a grand time. It had been so long since he had been able to fight in a battle like this that he forgot how much he sincerely enjoyed it. Having to fight so many of his hated "brothers" at once was only gravy to him. It was wonderful to be pummeling idiots like the good old days, and wandering Russia simply couldn't compare to it.

Mega Man fired off a charged shot at Wind Man. He wasn't one to enjoy fighting for its own sake, but he was happy Bass was at least less grumpy. Having to deal with the dark robot after he had just come from being lectured by Reyes wasn't enjoyable, and Bass had been gloomy ever since. But now he was laughing, even if in a very horrible, growling sort of way. Mega Man was glad Bass felt useful, and also plenty glad he didn't have to fight all five of the robots by himself.

"I wonder if these Cain-bot powers are any good..." Mega Man pondered. "You know, I never actually tried out Bullet Man's weapon."

"Distracting me is cheating, Rock." Bass complained with humor, grinning viciously as he fired his double busters at Frost Man. "You cheating bastard."

Mega Man was distracting himself more than anyone else, but he did laugh at that. He disengaged his ultra armor, letting his colors change from double blue to yellow and white. Despite the ugly set of colors, the power bullet seemed like a strong weapon. Three missles spun dizzily around, swirling ever towards an irritated Wind Man.

"Oh no you don't!"

The little chain around Wind Man's head swung around in a circle for effect. He powered up his mighty propellor fans, hitting them with such a gust of wind that they flew right back, arcing over Mega Man and heading further on down the beach, right where more fighting was going on.

"Bass!" Mega Man yelled. "Watch out!"

Only through the power of skill and double jumps did Bass manage to keep from being hit by the homing bullets. He back flipped into the air just barely in time to dodge them, and they cruised by only to smack right into Frost Man. Bass landed in the sand with a thud, everything besides his face looking very cool and stylish as he landed perfectly with his years of hard-earned skill. Like I said, except for his snarling face. It was difficult for him to be happy when Mega Man managed to off his opponent and steal the first kill.

"Rock!" he growled, definitely more serious this time. "That's cheating too."

"Don't be a sore loser!" Mega Man said cheerfully, not quite realizing that that wasn't the best tone to use at the moment. Of course, one usually doesn't have the focus to be diplomatic towards grumpy allies when one is dodging a propellor from Wind Man. Moreover, Cold Man wanted a piece of the action.

"Hey Windy!" Cold Man said, gallantly lifting his terrible arms. "Ha, let me help you! We will make...an air conditioner!"

The ferocious ice-bot jumped directly behind Wind Man, and sending a shot of his frosty ice powers through Wind Man's propellors. The blast of freezing air knocked Mega Man back, skidding him through the beach. If he didn't smack right into the back end of the pier, there was no telling how far the frozen wind would have sent him. Worse yet, a layer of ice and frost pinned him down. The blue bomber (or yellow and white bomber, as he was for the moment) quickly remembered his weapon. The power bullet was a chargable weapon, and if he charged it, it would have the power to cruise right into Wind Man...

"Hi there, short stuff!" Aqua Man, standing just behind him on the pier, had his water gun ready to go and aimed directly at his head. "Dying is so in style! Get ready for high fashion!"

Left with no other choice, Mega Man tried to aim at Aqua Man and stop the creepy robot, only the ice building up on his armor was slowing him down. It froze his arm and he couldn't do so much as aim. This left him nothing to do but sit there and listen with horror to Aqua Man's creepy laughter.

"Haeehaee! Aren't you glad you get to be shot by a good looking guy like me?"

_**CRACK!**_

Bass dashed in, his normally golden headfins and accenting now a mild purple. He slammed his fist into Aqua Man's side, and with the psycho pulse, Algorhythm Man's power, the impact shattered Aqua Man's water-pot belly like a pottery jar. Aqua Man tried to shoot back, but his water pressure was gone, and there was nothing he could do to stop Bass from blasting him to death.

"Here." Bass shot three blasts at Mega Man to melt off the thickening frost. "This'll fix you."

"Gah!" The pellets freed him from the ice, but that didn't stop them from damaging Mega Man. "You just like shooting me!"

"Well, duh."

The hot plasma did do a very good job of melting the gathering ice all over Mega Man's body, and now that he was free, he was able to let loose the fully charged power bullet. Instead of three homing torpedoes, one mighty bullet shot forth and this one went straight forward. It was fast enough to get through the powerful wind and make it through not only Wind Man, but Cold Man behind him too. Mega Man ran forward, switching back to his ultra armor and pummeling away at Wind Man, making sure that the Team 6 robot knew better than to fight against justice.

Mega Man looked up in the air. Emit Man was still hovering, throwing his blade bombs at Bass to punish him for destroying Aqua Man (then again, Emit Man had relented long enough to let Bass kill the annoying water robot...). Mega Man gave a quick nod to no one but himself. It was better to leave the shield robot to Bass anyway. Bass' plasma pellets were weaker, but they were also smaller and could more easily find ways through Emit Man's shielding, his double busters besides. There was no way Mega Man's charged shot could do any good; the larger and more powerful blasts would certainly hit the Cain-bot's protection instead of him.

_I guess that leaves me with Cold Man. I don't know which is worse, beating Bass or letting him win..._

But of course Mega Man's first choice was always to protect the people. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Monstropolis, not for any contest, and that meant Cold Man was going down. Still, he was feeling pretty worn out. Of all nights to forget to pack an E tank!

Bass, on the other hand, was enjoying himself thoroughly. He knew in the back of his mind that he had to hurry up and kill Emit Man so the could get Cold Man first and win the challenge, but Emit Man wasn't about to go down as quickly as he did the first time. After all, Bass had won sort of by trick the last time - if you can call taking advantage of his opponent's dumb move a trick.

"You know, Algorhythm Man really wanted to be the one to defeat you." Emit Man sneered down at Bass, grimacing as if Bass were some sort of disgusting creature. "But he's just going to have to deal with it. I was the one insulted by you! I should have the honor!"

While the Cain-bot ranted and raved, Bass quickly considered his options. The psycho pulse was too close range to work on him and the signal shot would only get caught on his shielding, as would the echelon heatshock. That left Emit Man's own power, the emit shield. This weapon wasn't offensive, but it just might work.

Several little red blades reminded Bass that he was fighting, not thinking. Emit Man wasn't going to spend the whole fight ranting. A few of the bomb-blades hit him, slicing deep into his armor. Before he could pull more than a couple of them out of his metal plating, they exploded. Despite his good armor, the deep cutting blades were merciless. There went his left buster, now defunct. Bass growled, making his gold head fins turn to red. He wasn't sure what he expected the emit shield to do, but he hoped it would do something.

And something it did. It didn't steal away Emit Man's shield like he expected. Oh no, quite the opposite. Emit Man's gasping, disdainful, and just plain "I'm better than you" laughter signalled that he was picking up even more debris than before. His shield field doubled in size in a matter of moments, pulling thing like rocks, sea shells, and even ripped up pieces of the pier (casualties from earlier in the fight).

"Ahaha!" Emit Man couldn't stop laughing. "Are you that stupid that you think you can use my power against me? Fool! I will only grow stronger! Uh...where did you go?"

The Cain-bot wasn't lying. Using his power did make him stronger - too strong. His search for his fin-headed enemy ended once his gently shifting shielding circled around. There was Bass, floating in the air along with all the other random metals and rocks. From that position the dark robot had a very good shot at Emit Man's head. The last thing Emit Man saw was several pellets coming straight for him. Bass slammed to the ground like a metal ragdoll once Emit Man's powers disappeared.

"You alright, Bass?"

"Shut up!"

In moments, Cold Man found himself being attacked by not only Bass but the true blue bomber. The two heroes, quite inadvertantly, ended up side by side as they trained their busters straight at the large ice-bot. Bass spared a moment to give a befanged grin to Rock.

"Alright, just one robot master left." the dark robot did something not unlike a laugh, though Mega Man wasn't sure that it wasn't at least a little snarlish. "Let's see who wins now!"

"Hold your horses." Mega Man turned to Cold Man, pleading in his eyes. "Cold Man, you don't have to fight us. You can just surrender. There's no need for you to be destroyed today. Don't be like the others."

"Rock..." Bass was disdainful as his narrow eyes and snearing nose judged his fellow fighter-bot. "That's cheating too."

"Oh, shut up." Mega Man shook his head, trying to ignore Bass. "Well?"

Cold Man looked from fighter to fighter. He looked confused, but more frustrated. Cold Man was the sort that got irritated instead of afraid, and irritated he certainly was. He thought a moment about strategies and where he could shoot an ice wall so that he could take advantage of both of the robots. However, the upgrading that Dr. Cain had done to him apparently wasn't enough to give the fridge-bot a lot of confidence. He lifted his arms as if guessing the best sort of attack. None of his ideas seemed to please him. All the same, he laughed.

"That's nice of you to offer, Mega Man." the enemy finally said, lifting his arms in the air as if he could magically bring their deaths from the nighttime clouds. Fog appeared around him as he spoke, the sort of fog that meant he would soon be unleashing ice walls. "Not under King, and not under Cain! I can't destroy you...ironic! But that's how life goes sometimes...some of us are fighter-bots, and some are just, well...refridgerators. I better do what Dr. Cain tells me to, though. I'll give you a good fight for a walking appliance, fellows!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Cold Man." Mega Man began charging his buster. "You know what this means."

Bass couldn't wait for Mega Man to charge up. If he wanted Cold Man to count as one of his kills, then he was going to have to be quick. He dashed off to the left, ready to fire his plasma pellets. Mega Man flashed yellow, his glow growing as he jumped over Cold Man's attacks. Finally it was ready to fire, and...there was no need. A green teleport beam flashed down straight behind Cold Man. Before the enemy robot could do a thing about it, Gyro Man had sent dozens of his gyro blades through the back of his neck. Cold Man fell to the sands of the beach, his internal workings sending little patterns of ice through the wet sand.

"IDIOT!" Bass' fists tightened as he yelled. "I was just about to beat Mega Man to the punch!"

"What the crap are you talking about?" Gyro Man was too impatient for Bass' drama. "Look, Stone Man is hurt and the train station is on fire. We've got stuff to deal with! Don't be such a baby!"

If Mega Man hadn't been so quick to speak, Gyro Man would have heard plenty of filthy language and hideous complaints from the dark robot. As it was, Mega Man knew he had to take charge of the situation, and Bass settled for a threatening glare. He could always rip apart Gyro Man later.

"Don't argue, we're on the job." Rock addressed Gyro as he deactivated his charge. "What Cain-bots are still in Monstropolis?"

"None that I know of." Gyro Man walked to Mega Man, acting as if he was just as skilled and important as our adorable hero (hard to do when stepping over Cold Man - he hoped he wouldn't slip on the ice). "We got Sight Man, but Psycho Man messed up Stone Man before got away. I sent him back to the lab. Charge and Napalm have the train station fire under control, and Bullet Man got away from there. I don't think anyone else showed up in the city."

"And what about you? Ick, your neck looks horrible, almost like someone bit it."

Gyro Man laughed. "Ha! I'm a little beat up, but no worse for wear. Thanks for asking. No, let's see if we can track these guys! I think the train station would be the best place to start-"

"Arrrgh!" Bass suddenly complained. "What the hell has she got herself into? She _better_ have brought that gun with her! Treble! Get out here!"

Given that Bass was speaking to Bruce the little pipi (where did he come from, anyway?) it was easy for the other to guess that Crystal Bot was the one in trouble. Gyro Man was instantly afraid. There wasn't much time for him to do any questioning. Just as soon as the purple beam that was Treble landed beside his master, the two simply teleported off again.

-t-

Jewel Man was a great fighter. Tough, reliable and with a sturdy weapon. Unfortunately, his shop didn't exactly do well with battles, and Frantic Man was quicker. The panes of glass that separated the street from the store's interior were simply no match for even one of Clown Man's arms. Frantic Man smacked right through it and snatched up Jewel Man by the neck. The bejeweled guy-bot was dragged out through the window, smacking into his displays and toppling over two racks of necklaces. Jewel Man would have been horrified by the destruction if he wasn't otherwise occupied with trying to save his skin.

"Jewel Man!" Crystal Bot shrieked. "Oh no...I wish Forte was here!"

The girl-bot was going to have to do something for herself for the moment. The first of which was to make a quick exit before Great Gem's robot blast doors went down and blocked the whole front of the store (they were very used to robot battles in Monstropolis). Crystal Bot remembered a quick duck-and-roll that Bass had taught her, and she made it out into the street just in time for the heavy protection panel to close behind her. Grinning deviously, Sonata pulled her blaster gun from her hood and readied herself to fight.

_Alright, you can do it!_ she told herself. _You can save Jewel Man Ahbohjee!_

When she looked up, she saw that Jewel Man _Ahbohjee_ was doing fairly well on his own. His jewel shield both kept away Frantic Man's clown arm and wouldn't blow away with Air Man's powers either. Even with Frantic Man flying above him, Jewel Man was hitting him left and right with his jewel sattelite. Still, Frantic Man wasn't to be underestimated. He still had one more power: Fire Man's fire storm. The haphazard robot landed before shooting it off.

The fire blasted right through Jewel Man's shielding, sending him sprawling on the concrete. Now that Jewel Man was far enough away, Crystal Bot fired off her gun with confidence, and it shot off glowing lasers at Frantic Man. Unfortunately, Frantic Man was a far better fighter than her. The twirpings of his computerish voice sounded an awful lot like "Thunder Carnival", and he instantly was surrounded by a red, electric shield. He bounced perilously close to Crystal Bot, and all at once she could feel her Toad Man disease begin to act up. Her arm flinched in fear as she tried to shoot him, but all at once her training fled from her mind. She couldn't focus on her counterattack, and before she knew it her adversary was back in normal form (as normal as the weird robot could be) and his clown arm immediately snatched away her gun.

"Ack!" Crystal Bot gasped, jumping back. "Aw, now that's not fair!"

Frantic Man didn't care about fair. He just flung Crystal's weapon behind him yards away and reached out again for Jewel Man, whose shield wasn't activated. Jewel Man tried to get up, but his limbs weren't working right. His joints were fused from the fire and they creaked loudly. It didn't help that Frantic Man shot off more of the fire shield. That ended Jewel Man's struggling, and with a weak moan he knew that he had been bested. Crystal Bot recklessly ran forward, trying somehow to reach Jewel Man. She had to teleport him out of there while he could still be repaired.

If only Frantic Man wasn't so fast. His whip arm lashed out again, and he had a weak and badly hurt Jewel Man by the neck. He flew up into the air out of the girl-bot's reach and held his fire storm arm against Jewel Man's head.

"Please don't!" Crystal Bot screamed. "You can't!"

Much to Crystal Bot's surprise, Frantic Man stopped. His fire buster was still poised to shoot, but he didn't fire. Turbo Man's expressionless head turned towards the girl-bot, and she realized with widening eyes that she had his attention. She wouldn't let it go to waste.

"You can't hurt Jewel Man..." Crystal Bot's words spilled out of her as if she were about to cry. "I went so long thinking that Dr. Wily was my creator, but he wasn't at all. My real father is dead. Jewel Man helped build me some, so he's kinda like a father to me. Maybe he's not my real creator but he's the only daddy I have left...please let him go..."

Frantic Man could convey no emotion. His face didn't move, and his voice was just a couple of computer blips and beeps. He stared down at Crystal Bot silently. There was only the beating of his wings. Finally, he lifted himself a little higher. Putting Air Man's fan in reverse, he shot himself through the air, bringing Jewel Man along with him as he disappeared into the dark night.

Frozen, all Crystal Bot could do was settle to the sidewalk. He hadn't teleported, so there was no teleport code to trace. He was too fast, and Crystal Bot couldn't fly. There would be no persuit for her. Sonata's intense emotion forced her to glitch violently, and she convulsed in grief for several minutes before teleport beams landed beside her. Bass, Treble, Mega Man, and Gyro Man were all there, and Gyro was the first one to reach her.

"Please tell me you're alright!" Gyro Man ran up and knelt beside her. "You're not hurt-"

"You guys are such jerks!" Crystal Bot screamed at him first before turning to give the others their fair share. "You weren't here and Frantic Man took Jewel Man away!"

"Stop yelling at that idiot and tell me Jewel Man's tracking code." Bass growled as he stood over her. "I'll find him, so stop your whining."

"Don't lecture the poor girl. I'll tell you." Mega Man sent a transmission with the coordinates. "There. Now try to at least be a little sensitive when Crystal is sad."

Mega Man neared the shiny-bot as he spoke, but once he turned from Bass to Crystal, her foul scowl stopped him in his tracks. He backed off, wondering how in the world he was going to learn to deal with her.

"Treble," Bass hollered. "Let's go!"

The wolf gently nudged Crystal Bot in the neck, somehow producing a quick and barely noticable smile from her. That done, he converted into Treble jet and the two shot off. Mega Man considered following Bass, but he didn't think that would be such a good idea after how their little contest turned out. He rubbed the back of his head, wishing he hadn't challenged Bass in the first place. He didn't like letting Bass go out on his own into unknown potential danger, but with frustration he realized that going along and irritating Bass would be worse. Let him be in danger if his ego was so fragile!

"Well, let's get back to the lab." Mega Man settled himself down. "I can have Auto track Jewel Man with our lab's sattelite. We'll find your _ahbohjee_, okay?"

Despite herself, Crystal Bot managed a nod. It was hard to be too mad at Mega Man, especially since he was being so nice. She let Gyro Man pull her to her feet, and with the quick zip of three teleport beams, they all disappeared.

\\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Yeah, Mega Man really doesn't like pipies. :D

- I think I mentioned this before, but just to reiterate, all assistant-bots speak in a animalian code that's disguised as barking/tweeting/etc. Usually only the owner of this kind of robot understands what they are talking about, and usually only other assistants are able to hack and figure out these codes.

- I really wish I could make these stories into a game. I would make it so that you have Psycho Man's power, but it works even better when you find a secret weapon that lets you channel out his power. Like a lance or something. By the way, Treble disappears in this chapter because Bass wanted it to be a fair fight between him and Mega Man. It wouldn't be fair to include Treble, especially when Rush is more of an assistant to Mega Man than a fighter himself. That, and Bass wants to prove that he's the better fighter, not his dog. Bass is surprisingly honest for a Wily-bot.

- There's an Irish bar near where I live that's called Tipsy McStaggers. Doesn't that name make you so proud to be Irish? Sure does for me!

- Okay guys, bad news. Life as of late has been pretty hectic and tense for me, so I'm sorry to announce that this is going to be my last update for a bit. I need to chill out about writing for a while, because I've been going on for pretty long on this story series. I need to rest and refresh my brain, as well as focus on priorities out here in the real world. I've been a slacker, and I've got priorities that I haven't been working on as well as I could be. I just need this break so that I can get back on the writing and not let the quality of my story suffer because my mind isn't in the right place. I'm sure you've noticed I haven't been updating frequently as of late.

I'm not going to stop writing completely. I have a little mini-series on my blog, arcrosestudios(dot)blogspot(dot)com, called Hero of the Month. It's basically an exercise to force my mind to concentrate on more than one project at once, and it's not as time consuming and thought consuming as this story here. Also, I'll be buffering this story here so that by the time I come back, it'll be ready to put up at least once a week. My goal is to get a nice huge buffer so that I can spend a lot of time working on the ending and such. This is going to be much longer than my other works, so yeah. Think of this as just an intermission. The best is yet to come. :D

- Also, I'd like to say thanks to the guy who posted anonymously this review, "you cant kill proto he's the best one i love him your a monster". Honestly, the first time I saw that I just had to giggle. I especially love the "your" instead of "you're" - it's really the icing on the cake there. It makes me feel wonderful that you have such an emotional investment into the character and that you care what happens and are interested to know what's going on in my story. I actually feel complimented that you called me a monster. Man, that's funny! I feel like a little monster writing this story, as I just enjoy getting the characters into embarrassing and awkward situations.

So yeah, thanks. You didn't leave me a name, but I want to call you something. I hereby name you...Proto Lawrence. Honesty, Proto Lawrence, you posted probably one of my favorite reviews ever, in my top three of all time. It's even better than during Wily Ga Taosenai when MungoJerry freaked out as I killed off a main character (and that was hilarious!). Thanks for making my day. I really mean it. :) By the way, you really should check out Wily Ga Taosenai, especially chapter 11. Heh heh...heh heh...

=====Cold Man  
**"Do you want me to cool your head?"  
**Good Point: Carefree attitude  
Bad Point: Slow perception  
Like: Frappetino  
Dislike: El Nino

Cold Man wasn't actually built by Wily. He was a unit built to freeze dinosaur DNA for scientific experimentation. Cold Man didn't like the work. He wanted to be famous like Mega Man and admired for being a hero. He wasn't a bitter robot, however, not until he found about about King. King opened his eyes to a world where robots could challenge their masters, and Cold Man enjoyed the thought that he could become something better than what his creator built him for. He immediately lept at the chance for freedom and allowed King to reprogram him. He didn't realize how evil this would make him, and he began to desire infamy rather than heroic fame.

Unfortunately for him, he's a dang fridge. He never had the capability of being more than tedious to Mega Man or Bass. King was generous to him because he cared about robotkind, but in the end Cold Man wasn't really all that great a servant. Dr. Wily did not rebuild him after the events of Mega Man and Bass, but he did take Cold Man's remains to be studied, as he wanted to know what enabled Cold Man to maintain a core tempurature of absolute zero. Studying Cold Man ended up enabling Wily's later robots to be more energy efficient.

Needless to say, Signal Man found his remains, rebuilding him for the sake of having another servant. He didn't know that Cold Man wasn't the best fighter, but he didn't really care. Signal Man just wanted his boss to have another lackey.

=====Commando Man  
**"Have an oil and we'll think this through."  
**Good point: generous  
Bad point: stubborn  
Likes: learning new things  
Dislikes: impatient people

Commando Man was built by Wily after the Team 9 scheme. Contrary to what many people thought, the 9th scheme had actual success to an extent. Certain gullible people paid Dr. Wily because they expected him to get rid of Dr. Light's rampaging robots, and after they found out that it was Wily behind everything the whole time (surprise) they had no way of getting their money back. Now at this point Dr. Wily figured he would need to try more subtle methods for taking over the world, so Team 10 was built and given jobs to ensure a calm transition into society.

Commando Man was sold to the military to be a robotic leader of strategy. Unlike what most people expect, he actually has a more calm demeanor and isn't really interested in plain violence. He enjoys fighting mostly for its tactics and absolutely loves planning out battles and watching his strategies work, though he never really got the chance to do much direct fighting. He's not over-eager to fight, and will settle for a war game in a pinch. His normal job just entails cleaning up mine fields. Commando Man loves travelling the world, but always maintained a very rational view of life and kept Wily's plans in mind. Unlike Blade Man, his love for his job didn't make it hard for him to rampage and terrorize the world, as his loyalty to Wily was very strong.

Like the chapter shows, Commando Man and Napalm Man were very good friends before Team 5 left Wily. Even though he was older, Napalm Man found himself looking up to Commando Man and considered him like a brother in arms. Commando Man liked talking to him, and they spent countless hours talking about weapons and war. If Napalm Man hadn't been put in the robot museum shortly before MM10, he would have tried to join Commando Man at his job in the military.

Commando Man spent the end of MM10 until the events of Okkusenman in the robot museum, and when the last Skull Castle was destroyed, he fought as hard as he could but was critically injured by Tornado Man. In the end, he was found by Signal Man and reprogrammed to follow Dr. Cain, much to his horror.


	10. Intermission

Crystal Bot liked working on Bass. Sure, it was annoying to share a lab with Bright Man, and all she ever really got to do was repair environmental damage done to Bass by the heavy snows (would this Russian winter ever end?), but at least things were happy. The dark robot was in Russia now, looking to find where his horrid creator had hidden his masterpiece robot: Zero. That was why Forte and his technician were staying in Dr. Cossack's lab, legal property of the Russian doctor until Zero was encountered.

"Hurry up, Sonata." Bass complained. "I don't want to leave Treble out there by himself for long. Not when he can run into Zero at any time."

"Hold your horses! I want you to work right when you find him!"

For the moment, Bass was sitting on the right half of a small lab, which consisted of little more than a wall computer and two repair tables. The entire left side (much bigger than the other) was filled with all manner of plants, covering each repair table, computer top, and window sill available. That was what Bass got to stare at as Crystal Bot worked on his open buster; little sparks shot out at her face as she welded his buster armor together. After one final burning glow, she seemed pleased.

The daughter of Crystal Man happily put down her torch, snapping off the flame with the push of a button on the blue canister. "There we go! Test that out and see if it works."

Forte repeatedly switched his hand to and from a buster, satisfied with the short change time. "Looks good. Alright, now get me some energy pellets and I'll get going."

"Right!" With that, Crystal Bot dashed over to Bright Man's side of the lab (he wasn't there, fortunately) and started digging through one of his cabinets. "Hey Forte? When we were with Dr. Wily, you got to see a lot of the world, right?"

"I guess." Bass grimaced as he hopped off of the repair table. He didn't like thinking of those times. But it was true; he spent as little time as possible at the Skull Castles as he could. He had to go back from time to time to get repaired, but after that it was right back out into the open world to avoid Wily, cause mischief, and fight Mega Man.

"And you met a lot of humans?"

"Some." Bass grinned, choosing not to add aloud, _the ones I scared to death._

"Okay, so you know more about humans than I do." Crystal Bot straightened, bearing several small energy pellets in her arms. She kicked the cabinet door shut. "I've never been out of the labs at Wily's for very long, and Dr. Cossack doesn't have a lot of humans around. There's something I've always been really curious about, and I was hoping you could answer a question for me."

"Sure, I guess." Bass took the energy pellets and stashed them under his armor. "What do you want to know?"

"Where do babies come from?"

Bass froze in place, stiffening every joint and leaving his face in an expression of horror. "Um...you seriously don't know?"

"Nope." Crystal Bot didn't appear to notice how scared her boss looked. "I meant to ask Dr. Wily, but I kept forgetting. So where do they come from? I mean, I know when women are gonna have babies they look all big and fat, but that's all I know."

The technician looked at Bass with curious and perfectly innocent eyes, waiting for him to say something. Bass, however, was managing to regain control of his facial features - somewhat. He awkwardly opened his mouth, trying to choose words but quickly deciding against them. Finally he sputtered an answer.

"Crystal...look it up on the internet."

"But I -"

"LOOK IT UP. ON THE INTERNET."

Bass teleported out of there like a bolt of lightning and was gone. Confused, Crystal Bot just stared up at where the teleport beam had gone.

"That's weird. I was just asking a question. Sheesh..."

-t-

Dr. Cossack was giving himself a day off. He was in the living room, but since he was without a wife it served as his man-cave. The whole place was scattered about with books and newspapers, all helpfully gathered into respective piles on the desk, the chair, the bookshelves, the unoccupied corners, and certain spots on the floor. Cossack was notoriously clean about his laboratory. This place was his room to relax! So he stretched out there on loveseat, smoking a cigar and reading the latest tech publication that Russia printed. He took a contented draw from his tabacco and sighed dreamily, remembering that Kalinka was making roast beef sandwiches for lunch. This was the life!

Mikhail was in a good mood, so it didn't bother him at all when a soft knock sounded on the door. He hoped it was Kalinka, but as he said, "come in" the entering person was Crystal Bot.

"Hey, Dr. Cossack." she said. "I wanted to talk to you for a minute about humans. I'm not bothering you, am I?"

"No, it's fine." he said almost lazily, sitting up. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, I was talkin' to Forte-kun about something, but then he got all weird and teleported away." Crystal Bot explained, coming over and sitting at the now free spot on the sofa. "I don't get him sometimes. Anyway, you have a kid so you would know this: where do babies come from?"

That hit Dr. Cossack like a punch from a heavyweight champion boxer. The scientists sputtered a bit, clearing his throat and trying not to turn red - it didn't work. He delayed for a minute by setting aside his magazine and putting out his cigar, but once these small acts were finished Crystal Bot was still staring at him, waiting for an answer.

"Papa!" Kalinka cheerfully called out as she entered the room bearing a tray with a large sandwich and a mug of coffee. "Lunch is ready!"

"Ah, Kalinka!" Dr. Cossack spoke a little too loudly to be mannerable. "Dr. Petrovich called me this morning didn't he? I forgot I was supposed to return the call after...after his meeting. I've got to go talk to him about...things."

With that, the Russian scientists dashed out of the room with surprising speed for an older human. Puzzled, the girl and the girl-bot stared at each other.

"What was going on?" Kalinka asked, setting her tray on the one open spot on the desk. "Why was Papa acting so weird?"

"I just asked him where babies come from...that's all..." Crystal Bot felt more confused by the minute.

Kalinka had to laugh. "Ha, the birds and the bees. I remember when Papa had to tell me about it. It was so awkward! He ended up having one of his female collegues explain it to me."

Crystal Bot brightened at once. "Oh, so you know? Tell me!"

Now that the earnest question was directed at her, it was Kalinka's turn to be awkward. She sputtered and "ahem"ed several times over, thinking and making little nervous hand motions as she tried to decide how best to explain. But each wince and blush convinced Kalinka that this was a question she wasn't ready to answer.

"Um...err...oh! Papa forgot his lunch!" Kalinka suddenly exclaimed. "I've got to go find him!"

Kalinka only stayed long enough to snatch up the tray. With that, she vanished from the room so fast that it was hard to tell that she had gone out of the door rather than teleporting.

"Well, that's just weird. Why can't people tell me where babies come from?" Crystal Bot scrunched up her face in annoyance "I don't get it. There's nothing scary about babies. Hee hee, it's funny to see people act all weird when I mention it though...could it be that I've found...a secret weapon to make people go away?"

Crystal Bot clapped her hands at the thought. As scientific as she always preferred to be, Crystal Bot still loved magic; the inexplicable things that made interesting happenstances occur for seemingly no reason. And here was a great magic! A magical question that would instantly make everyone afraid and run as fast as they could. Crystal Bot giggled more and more, clapping her hands. Her giggling grew along with her devious smirk. She just got an idea...

-t-

"Wily! Come on! You've got a phone call!"

Albert Wily couldn't stand prison. Between being bossed around, being made to work sewing (they wouldn't let him near anything half resembling a machine), and stuffing down cardboard meals, even high-status criminal Wily was having a rough time of it. Though the food was indeed related to its corrugated anscestor, it was definitely annoying to be pulled from even that to answer the phone on an empty stomach. Wily focused as hard as he could on the nasty sausage to remind his stomach that going without breakfast wasn't the worst thing in the world.

"Who's calling me now?" Wily fussed just for the show of it as two guards brought him down the hall. "Not the REA again, I hope..."

"Nah, it's some robot from Russia." a guard said. "You've got five minutes."

And with that, the two brought him over to a smaller room whose walls resembled all the other dull walls in the stupid prison: white painted cinderblocks. The only thing really unique about this room were the three telephones on the left wall, separated by nothing more than 1 foot plastic panels. A security robot sat on the bench on the other side of the room, but it was replaced by the two guards - no sense in letting any robot near Wily. Albert tried to ignore the far wall. Two-way mirrors always gave him the creeps. In any case. the first phone had a little blinking red light, so that meant someone was waiting to speak to him. He picked it up, only vaguely curious.

"Hello?"

The guards watched Dr. Wily's wrinkled face shrivel, first in suspicion, then confusion. Finally the man's pasty skin turned a maddening red and he let loose with massive hollering.

"WHO'S BEEN CORRUPTING MY ROBOT?" Wily shrieked with rage. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT _THAT_, YOUNG LADY! WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON BASS! HOW DARE HE LET YOU BE EXPOSED TO THAT! I'LL KILL HIM! _ I'LL KILL HIM_!"

The guards immediately intruded, snatching away the phone and desperately trying to get Wily to cut out the caps lock volume. One called in for backup. Wily might be an old man, but he was wiry and energetic, and this was going to turn out to be a really long day.

-t-

Crystal Bot laughed her head off as the line went dead. Back in her lab, she shut down the communications and just laughed and laughed, kicking her legs giddily under her chair. This magic question was turning out to be very powerful.

_Well, it scared off the Cossacks and Forte,_ Crystal Bot noted to herself. _But Wily only got mad. Hm...I guess the magic gets different reactions out of people._

"Will you stop being so loud over there?" Bright Man huffed. He too was back in the lab, puttering around with his plant life and bacteria samples. "I'm trying to concentrate over here."

"Oh really?"

Giggling all the more, Crystal Bot did the worst thing she could possible do to Bright Man; go even closer. The bulb-bot winced, making sure to get between Crystal and his plant life. If Dr. Cossack didn't get her out of his lab soon, he was going to have a fit. For the moment, Crystal Bot only leaned in closer.

"I'll leave if you answer me one question. And that question is..." here she paused for effect, holding it just a little too long before it burst out of her like an alien. "Where do babies come from?"

"Arg...ick...you...just stay out of my side of the lab!" Bright Man stomped a foot. "Go do...whatever it is that keeps you out of my hair!"

"Not until you answer my question!"

"I give up! You're insufferable!" Bright Man threw his hands in the air. "_Bass_ has more manners than you! I'm going to have a talk with Dr. Cossack about this!"

The orange robot huffed once more and departed, leaving Crystal Bot in a fresh bout of giggles. She happily twirled about.

"Whee! Okay, so Bright Man got mad and went away...ooh, I can't believe how much power I have with just a few words!"

Then it struck her, and her grin became evil. Why not bug the blue bomber about it? She had always hated Mega Man. Ever since Bass had given up fighting Mega in favor of looking for Zero, Crystal's feelings about him turned from cute opposition into hateful little enemy. It wasn't fair that Mega Man wasn't bested yet.

"Well, at least I can test out my new magic on him! Hee hee hee!"

Crystal Bot quickly typed into her keyboard. She knew the number to call the Lights, and they could accept vidscreen calls. That would make Mega Man's reaction that much more visible and that much more sweet. Stifling another giggle, Crystal Bot waited for someone to answer the call. She was in luck. Rock himself answered, looking even cuter than usual without his helmet. His wavy black locks were enough to make anyone jealous.

"Oh, hi there, Crystal Bot!" he said in his equally cute voice. "What's up?"

"Hey there, Mega, I was just wonderin' something." Crystal Bot tried her hardest not to smile. "I just wanted to know...where do babies come from?"

"Human babies?" Mega Man questioned calmly, much to her horror. "Why do you want to know?"

"Um..." Crystal Bot was taken aback, and she scrambled for an answer. "Um...science?"

"Oh, okay. Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they get married and-"

One long explanation later -

"And that's where babies come from." Mega Man finished. "Is there anything else you want to know? Oops, I'm sorry, I've got to get going. The mayor is expecting me. Bye!"

It was a good thing he didn't wait for an answer; he wouldn't have gotten one anyway. Crystal Bot could only stare frozen into space horrified by the brand new data floating around in her head. Her only attempt at a response was the smallest twitch of the lips. Other than that, Crystal's eyes were stuck open and her mouth hung in horror. She was too frozen to even shut off the telescreen as Mega Man wandered off. In his place, Roll went into visual range, smiling until she saw Crystal's face.

"Sona-chan?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

It took Crystal Bot a moment and several facial twitches to begin to regain control of her face. Finally she managed to speak again, squinching her eyes forcefully shut.

"Humans...are so gross!"

Author's Notes:

- Lol, this is just a joke chapter that I've had floating around in my head for a while. Thought I'd put it up to let you know what's going on with this story. Okay, so I've been doing a lot of buffering on this break, and so I've got a lot of progress done and I know pretty much exactly what I'm going to do for the rest of this story. I'm going to continue buffering until the end of June, and on July 1 I'll begin posting one chapter a week some time on Fridays until the end. Thanks everyone for being so supportive throughout my massive five story fanfiction. I feel so proud of myself that I've finished this story and had the inspiration and support to keep going this long.


	11. Alexandrite

San Fransisco had its share of robots. In some of Wily's schemes it had seen major trouble and devastation. That was why they took extra care in making sure that Dr. Albert Wily was secure behind bars.

Dr. Wily didn't mind his jail cell too much. That was the benefit of solitary confinement: no annoying, arrogant, or "more gangsta than thou" co-convict trying to intimidate him or steal his cigarettes. Of course that also meant there was no one to give Wily cigarettes either, but he could deal with it. There was also no snoring to keep him up. It was true that in the snoring department Wily gave as much as he endured, but now it would be fine. The room was tiny and the bed was hard, but at least it was all his. Due to his age, he even got his own bathroom in the cell. Of course, that had as much to do with mistrust as it did his weaker bladder. It wasn't as if anyone would dare let him out of his cell for long, and only the word of the law allowed him to go get fresh air during the day.

Wily always found himself hanging about the heavy door to his cell. It had a thick, bullet-proof, impact-resistant window in it, and it was Wily's only way to see out of the white-painted cement block room. His view wasn't much. Mostly it was a desk, and sometimes a guard sat at it for paperwork, taking a break every few minutes to glare at Wily and insist that he get away from the window. Wily never obeyed. Most of the guards stopped demanding.

So the mad scientist, looking very bored, rested his arms on the little ledge of the window. The ledge wasn't really big enough to do that, and it kinda hurt a bit, but Albert wanted to look out of the window anyway. There wasn't much about his cell that was that interesting. It was the same as always, and he was getting tired of looking at the dull white walls. He had long since stopped judging Greg "Crazy Man" Hardy for fingerpainting on the walls of his cell. He might be completely nuts, but at least Hardy knew how to deal with boredom.

Wily hmphed and went on staring. It was getting late, and soon enough a guard -

**BANG, BANG!** The gruff face of the unshaven guard Grant passed by as he smacked on the door with a clipboard - one of those thick ones that had a storage box on the back so it made a lot more noise. "Fatty" Grant liked the noise. "Go lay down, old guy. It's your bedtime."

Not waiting for the scientist to object, the guard immediately shut off the lights. Albert scowled, but the oaf barely annoyed him. He liked to think he was used to "the ignorant masses" by now. All the same, he did sit down on the little bed with its thin blue blankets, if nothing else other than to make Fatty go away. He silently counted to himself, listening to each footstep of the bulky guard as they quieted out.

"Twenty-five...twenty-six...twenty-seven."

Wily grinned. It took twenty-seven steps for the guard to round the corner and go off to the less infamous prisoners. He didn't just look out that window in the door for his health. Glancing over just in case, Wily saw there were no shadows at the window. He turned to the wall across from him, and his grin got even bigger. There might not be any shadows outside, but there was one in the cell: Shadow Man. The robot fingered a shuriken with a wry smile, waiting on an order from his master.

The mad scientist had to try very hard not to let out an evil laugh. That could wait until he was outside the walls of the prison.

-t-

"Wow, you were right about Stone Man!" Auto exclaimed, his hands grasping his head in shock. "His realignment capabilities are totally shot! I'm going to have to special order some parts."

"Which...won't get here fast because of the shipping situation..." Gravity Man facepalmed. "Just great...well, if I'm lucky there's a spare on the space station."

It hadn't been long since their fight against the robots in Monstropolis, so there were many robots in Auto's laboratory that day. Half of the repair tables were used up. Stone Man lay in a pile on one of them, his round alignment core plugged into one of the computer pillars. Gyro Man was in an automated repair process, unconscious as the claws and lasers and wrench arms hanging down from the ceiling finished off his armor. Charge Man was on the repair table next to Stone Man's, and he looked pretty horrible. His armor was cracked in many places, and while most of that could be replaced it was going to take some doing for him to be able to fire his coal with precision aim again. Crystal Bot was checking on him, and though worried she still seemed optimistic.

Every so often her glance would go to Mega Man. The blue bomber was tough. Most of his injuries were done to his armor, and replacement armor was being made for him while he, helmetless and clad only in one of Dr. Light's lab coats, steadily bent over the main computer on the wall. His eyes narrowed with concentration, and for once he looked determined without being too adorable to completely drown out said determination. So in other words, he was cranky. Jewel Man was his friend, and Mega Man wanted more than anything else at that moment to be able to find him. After a minute, he sighed, straightening some.

"There, I've got the computer tracking Jewel Man's position now." Mega Man stretched his arms and let himself relax a little. "I'm sure that his tracking code is still working, it's just a matter of tracing it back. Don't worry, Crystal Bot. We'll find him!"

"I know Forte-kun will." Crystal frowned, quickly turning away and pretending to work harder on Charge Man's coal buster. "He's the best."

Mega Man just sighed again. He was in no mood for being diplomatic to Sonata's preference for her boss. Couldn't she for once pretend to be polite? "So, Gravity Man, where's Napalm?"

"He's back at the space station briefing Wave Man." Gravity Man replied, still poking a bit at Stone Man's alignment core. "Ick, this guy looks bad. So um, let's see. The train station got torn up, Psycho Man destroyed three truck stops before he and Sight Man were defeated before running away, and you and Bass took out five robot masters on your own. Wow, that's a lot of damage going around."

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure we stopped them from destroying the shipyard." Mega Man said. "I mean, we weren't far from it, and they were going after robot manufacturing deliveries. Splash Woman reported no trouble at the main harbor port. We were only at the old pier because Bass wanted to look there, so they probably noticed us before they got to their objective."

"Pssht, yeah." Gravity Man grinned haughtily. "Back in my day I would abandon anything to kill you. Too bad I never got the chance!"

Gravity Man winked, and Mega Man tried to grin. Rock still wasn't in the mood for that sort of joke so it faded quickly. He ran a hand through his thick hair, then rubbed his eyes. "Um, thanks for not killing me."

"Hey, you don't look so good, Rock!" Auto said. "I can't imagine that your circuits haven't taken a beating. Come on, let me do some work on you."

"Not now. I still have to keep an eye out for Jewel Man. I can't let something happen to him just because I'm hurt." Mega Man went back to the computer and started tapping on the keyboard. "Alright, yes! I think I found him!" Mega Man quickly pulled out the microphone from the console. "Bass, I'm sending you Jewel Man's coordinates!"

_" - I know right where he is, Rock. - " _Bass' sarcastic voice sounded over the radio. _" - I'm standing twenty feet away. Tell Crystal to stop moping around. I'll have him back in a minute. - "_

She was indeed moping, but she could hear on her own. She gleefully clapped her hands. Mega Man stopped looking. He didn't want to see her smirking at him, which she was sure to do. He honestly didn't care about comparing to Bass, and if she disapproved of him then it didn't matter to him. He was just so sick of her posturing and her constant negativity towards him. As grumpy as he was at the moment, he wasn't interested in becoming friends with her.

"I really gotta invent something so Forte-kun can teleport more than himself. It'd be handy if he could bring Jewel Man directly here." Mega Man wasn't looking so he didn't know who Crystal Bot was speaking to. "I just want Jewel Man _Ahbohjee_ to be okay!"

"Sheesh, be patient." It was easy to recognise Gravity Man's affable voice. "Didn't you check the computer? He's not that far out of Monstropolis."

Mega Man checked the distance again on the computer. Jewel Man was tracking in from the south, where Rock knew the forests were. "Oh, he'll be here soon. No wonder Bass was so quick. That's less than fifteen miles from the lab...strange..."

"I doubt we'll find any clues there." Auto folded his arms. "I mean, wouldn't they know we can trace our robots? It comes automatic in most models these days."

"Frantic Man probably wanted to throw us off the trail." Mega Man said simply. "He couldn't bring Jewel Man back to his base without us finding this base, not without deactivating the trace somehow which apparently he couldn't do. By leaving Jewel Man so close to us he prevents us from discovering more. If we're lucky, Proto Man will have found Frantic Man and followed him."

The thought of his brother warmed Mega Man's heart. It helped him overcome his barely perceptible frown and turn it into something of a hopeful smile, bringing him back to his usual level of happiness. That, however, was in turn overcome by another worry that appeared at the door. It wasn't an urgent worry (he hoped), but seeing a miserable Roll come into the main lab disheartened him.

When Roll had been cleaning up the "library" a few days ago, she had been happy. It had been a good day. Today was not a good day. Roll just quietly scuttled into the room, clasping her hands in front of her and only lifting her heavy eyes to look up occasionally at a person or two, listening in on the tech talk to see if the injured Team 5 members were okay. Ever since Dr. Light died (or more specifically, two weeks after) Roll had been acting strange. Her emotional roster was suddenly out of control, and she swung from exhuberantly happy to down in the dumps. Lately it was all dumps, so much so that Mega Man didn't entirely blame Crystal Bot for making a Dust Man reference (though it annoyed him all the same).

"Yeesh, you're gloomy like Dust Man!" Crystal Bot, now that her "step-father" was coming back, seemed ready to be peppy. At least enough so to try to cheer up her friend. "Don't be so down, okay? Nobody died today! Even Jewel Man is gonna come back and I'm going to fix him!"

Her last statement was more to convince herself, but Roll took this to mean that she already knew how. "Really? Good. I've been so worried..." The blonde girl-bot sighed, staring back down at the floor. "I just wish all this fighting was over already!"

Mega Man wanted to cringe. Roll had never liked it when anyone she cared about was fighting. She just didn't want to think that something horrible could happen to them at any time. Rock thought that by all this time she was more or less used to it, but now it was back to the early days when he fought Team 1. It was all "please be careful, Rock" or "please be sure to take lots of E tanks!" or Mega Man's personal least favorite, "whatever you do, don't get hurt!" Getting hurt was sort of the point; if he got hurt, no one else would.

He wasn't angry only for his own sake. He loved his sister. It just drove him nuts for her to be so depressed, and yet nothing he did seemed to cheer her up. It was as if she was expecting something to happen: either a good thing that would just instantly make everything better, or a bad thing that would ruin what she did have. Rock just wished she would count her blessings more often. She had her family and her health. Any threat from any mad scientist Mega Man would handle. Roll should trust him.

_I'm not a replacement for Dr. Light, but I at least try to take care of the household..._

-t-

As all this was going on, Bass found himself in the forest not that far from Dr. Light's home. It was a rather large gathering of trees, stretching out for miles. Anyone without a built-in satellite map function (or else a good map and compass) was sure to get lost. Bass had Jewel Man's tracking code, which was still working. Bass rolled his eyes. Any bad guy with sense would try to destroy something like that. Of course, poor Jewel Man broadcasting that signal could attract any manner of people with the capability of detecting the narrow beam tracer. Granted, there weren't a lot of people that could do that, but even still Bass eagerly awaited the day his probation ended, then he would be legally able to remove the tracer the government put on him.

_Stupid feds don't realize it's a liability to make ourselves tracible. Who knows if Wily can hack the signal?_

A grumpy Bass thought this without any sense of hypocrisy. After all, wasn't he using it to find Jewel Man? Oh look, there the shiny-bot was, sitting there against the base of an oak (it might have been something else, but Bass didn't know much about trees). Jewel Man's eyes were completely blank, but somehow he retained the expression of misery as he sat at the base of his tree. Frantic Man placed him a bit awkwardly, so if Bass had been human, he would have seen Jewel Man's horribly bent back and cringed at the very thought of sitting there in that position. However, neither were human or had the concept of a sense of pain.

_" - Bass, I'm sending you Jewel Man's coordinates! - "_

_" - I know right where he is, Rock. I'm standing twenty feet away. Tell Crystal to stop moping around. I'll have him back in a minute. - "_

The dark robot rolled his eyes. He didn't need Mega Man's help in finding someone with a tracer. It wasn't exactly hard. He just strolled on closer to the downed robot and headed in to grab him and hurry back. Thankfully the chase hadn't wasted too much of his time.

"I wonder why Frantic Man dumped him here." Bass said aloud. "There are a lot more convenient places to spring a trap on would be rescuers, Algorhythm Man."

Sinister laughter broke out from amongst the trees, and out of them popped the orange and neon robot known as Algorhythm Man. Other than thinking the Cain-bot had done a fair job hiding his brilliant neon colors in all the trees, Bass wasn't impressed. Maybe other robots could be intimidated by him, but Forte sure wasn't going to be one of them.

"Clever, Bass." the Cain-bot grinned. "I thought I was rather well hidden, myself."

"First of all, this is obviously a trap." Bass readied his busters and pulled his lip up to reveal his fangs. "And secondly, I can sense you trying to hack into me. Thanks for showing up. It's about time I tore you to pieces."

"Ahaha! My pleasure!" Algorhythm Man's laugh was loud and haughty. "But are you really sure that you can defeat me? Especially after I do...THIS?"

All at once the mild hacking that did little more than cut off Bass' communications became an all out assault, forcing itself into Bass' mind and reaching for whatever programming it could grab hold of. Bass crumbed down on a knee as more of his mind departed from defending him physically to defending his head. Still laughing his Supreme Laugh of Superiority(tm), Algorhythm Man sauntered in more closely. He came far more near than Bass was comfortable with.

"Oh, how sad." the Cain-bot said as he leaned over the shaking Bass. "I was expecting more of a challenge out of you. I suppose my latest upgrades are a bit stronger than you're used to. Oh well. I'll just say that you're getting exactly what you deserve for interfering with the great, powerful, and very much intelligent Dr. Nikola Cain. Good bye, dear Fish. It's been a pleasure destroying you."

Bass looked up, still glitching. Algorhythm Man lifted his buster and aimed at Bass' head, only to see that his grimaces were turning into one of Bass' classic, malicious, and downright ugly grins. In only a moment, his fists impacted into Algorhythm Man's chest and sent him scooting back. He only stopped when he tripped over Jewel Man's stuck out legs and ended up sprawled out on the forest floor.

"Ha, you think I'd get beat up by some loser like you?" Bass wasn't at all upset. He just got back to his feet, not letting the glitches he suffered hold him back one second. "You've got mental problems if you think you can ever defeat me!"

Eager to prove his point, Bass fired off his double busters. Algorhythm Man jumped up and fired back with his buster pellets, each shining a different color of the rainbow. As the fight ensued, Bass could only think of shooting and pummeling the idiot that had cost him the destruction of Zero. It did occur to him after a while that Jewel Man would get damaged in the fight that Crystal Bot would get mad at him, but thankfully enough Algorhythm Man was more more interested in shooting him. That was good enough for Bass; he grabbed Algorhythm Man by the arm and hurled him through the trees, where the Cain-bot, after smacking his limbs into a tree or two, finally settled into the underbrush.

The buzzing of an incoming transmission could be heard, and Bass could hear Algorhythm Man groan. Obviously his master was trying to contact him for some reason. Bass didn't care about this. He just dashed past the trees to find the orange and neon-bot clinging to a twisted arm and growling in his direction.

"Well...I won't beat you today..." Algorhythm Man took a step back, his visage grimacing and terrible. "But I will return to fight you again! If only my master would allow me to finish the fight! Adieu, Fish!"

With a snarl, Bass let loose several blasts from his buster, but all they hit was the bushes. For whatever weaknesses Algorhythm Man had, he certainly was quick to teleport out, and his orange beam disappeared into the air. Bass lowered his buster, feeling instant relief. Algorhythm Man hadn't hacked into him too badly, but he could feel his systems struggling to recover.

"Ugh..." Bass muttered. "Idiot. Next time I see him I'm going to kill him."

-t-

Mega Man's musings into his sister's problems were at once interrupted by a tall, gallant Bass sauntering in with Jewel Man hanging over his shoulder like a heavy sack of potatoes. He strode in like a conquering hero, grinning to himself as he brought in the Team 9 robot. While Gravity Man and Auto certainly approved, this show was for his tech assistant, and Crystal Bot simply ate it up. She clapped her hands and squealed with delight, practically hopping around Bass as she cheered him on.

"Yay, Forte-kun! I knew you could do it!"

Bass' superior grin aimed its way toward his technician. "All in a day's work. Hey Auto, you got somewhere for me to put this guy?"

"Right over here!" Auto directed him to the repair table furthest from the laboratory's door main door. "I'll have to get a good look at him before I can really see what we can do. Don't worry little Sona-chan!"

"He's going to be alright?"

"He will be!" Auto pulled out his fans and popped into a full on kung-fu stance. "You can count on me!"

Bass plunked Jewel Man quite ungently onto the repair table, his metal body clanging with an ear-ringing echo around the room. Crystal Bot winced, but she said nothing. She only rushed to his side and pulled a screwdriver out of her armor, searching for somewhere to start the repair.

"Hey, don't worry, sweetheart!" Auto put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her aside. "I was here when Jewel Man was built, so I know how to make him function again."

"Um...okay..." Crystal Bot anxiously clutched her screwdriver like it was a teddy bear. "Please do!"

"I will! So, to start off, let's see if he activates! Hm, low power level. Just a minute..."

That minute to Crystal Bot seemed like it would take forever. All Auto had to do was plug Jewel Man into this repair table's computer pillar so that the energy of the lab could power him up, but every second was like five minutes to her. She hoped that Bass would stay by her side, but he didn't care at all about the bejeweled guy-bot so he simply got out of the way. Crystal Bot almost scowled at him. She did scowl a little when instead Mega Man walked up, but he was just coming up to get a look at what was going on rather than supporting Crystal. She sighed, not noticing how much this irritated him.

"Did I miss anything?" Gyro Man, done with his repairs, hopped down from the repair table. "What's going on?"

"Bass found Jewel Man!" Gravity answered for him. "We're seeing if Jewel Man wakes up."

"I hope he knows where to go next! I want to kick butt on Cain's turf!"

"And there we go!" Auto announced. "Power charging, jumpstarting the core...and now, the flick of a switch!"

Auto activated Jewel Man. The Team 9 bot at once opened his eyes, a little weary. He moaned a little, but seeing Auto, he sat up. The joints in his body made a nasty metal scraping sound as he did, but that didn't seem to immobilize him any.

"_Ahbohjee_!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "You're okay!"

"Ugh, yes, as good as I can be." Jewel Man tested out his arms by stretching them and wriggling his fingers. They were fine. "What happened? The last thing I remember was fighting Frantic Man."

"You got kidnapped!" Crystal said, her eyes wide with remembrance. "Frantic Man took you away and it was so scary! But then Forte-kun found you and brought you back!"

"Please say you're kidding..." Jewel Man's jaw clenched as his eyes found Bass. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Shut up and be grateful." Bass was too smug to snap at him, and he folded his arms with a smirk. "If my technician didn't like you so much I would have left you out there. Besides, if you didn't suck like Top Man then you wouldn't have been in that dilemma anyway."

"I'm _not_ like Top Man!" Jewel Man tried hard not to shout. "You try fighting a robot with four different powers and see how it turns out for you!"

"Hell, that sounds like fun. Especially since I don't suck like Top Man."

"Stop it, please." Mega Man said. Why was everything doing its best to annoy him that day? He just shook his head and turned to their rescued friend. "So you didn't see where Frantic Man was trying to go?"

"Unfortunately not. I was unconscious the whole time."

"From these computer scans." Auto suddenly piped up. "It looks like Frantic Man was trying to hack into your head. He was looking for security codes into our lab and any weaknesses we might have. He was also hacking back through your personal memory storage, as early as your memories go."

"Really? What does he expect to find there?"

"It's possible he wants to know about the time Dr. Wily reprogrammed you." Mega Man said. "Maybe Dr. Cain wants to know more about Dr. Wily's machines so that he can build better robots."

"Or maybe he wants to find a way to defeat Wily again. He'll need to if he wants to succeed." Everyone turned to see that Proto Man had returned, standing there with the aura of solemnity about him. "I was out searching tonight, and I discovered that just a few hours ago, Dr. Wily has escaped prison, and I have reason to believe that most of Team 2 is with him. We now have two mad scientists to deal with."

Everyone let out a collective gasp. Gravity Man and Gyro Man were at once going on about how they were going to defeat Wily, admittedly more excited than upset. Bass was grim, but he only leaned on the lab's wall with silence. Mega Man was not curious to know what sort of poisonous thoughts the dark robot was sure to be having. Unfortunately he could very easily guess what was going on with his sister, who still lurked about the room with dark curiosity. Roll, once she heard the news, immediately was crestfallen. She almost seemed to shrink before she quietly turned away and headed out the door, silent as a shadow.

It was just too much. Rock had to care for his sister, he had to keep the lab from drowning in debt and he had to keep Monstropolis safe. How was he supposed to do any of those when he had two evil scientists trying to make things difficult? He couldn't even let one defeat the other, because no matter which of them won the people of their city and indeed all the world would still be in danger. Worry upon worry laid itself on Mega Man, and he found himself struggling to breathe. He clenched his eyelids together tightly.

_No! I'm not going to be this way! I'm not going to give in! Maybe things are harder without Dr. Light, but he trusted me with the safety of Monstropolis. He believed in me! I know I can do this with the help of my friends! Well, if we can all work together for once._

Mega Man immediately straightened, clearing his throat in such a way that all eyes immediately went to him. He spoke with a clarity and hope that only the brave blue bomber could, and his words were as uplifting as his perfectly straight posture.

"Everyone, listen to me." he said. "Maybe today is a darker day than any of our struggles in the past, and maybe we have a lot more fighting to do than any of us would like. But you know what? Dr. Wily hasn't defeated me in the past. I've gained a lot of friends and allies in all of you since then, so no matter how powerful either of our enemies may be, I know for a fact that they can't beat us. We're too strong for them, and we're too just. In fact, I just don't see how they can. No matter what happens, don't ever be afraid of them or what would happen if they won. They're not going to win, so there's no point in worrying about it."

For a minute there, it almost seemed as if Bass approved of Mega Man. Or he at least thought that what Rock said was funny. Proto Man did approve, and it was clear from the ever so slight grin that showed under his visor. The Team 5 robots in the room cheered, and even Crystal Bot smiled at him (she did it because heroic Mega Man is just about the cutest thing ever, but he didn't know that). Jewel Man approved and gave a thumbs up. Mega Man was actually glad that Roll left the room, because for some reason his speeches had strange affects on her. It was as if she had stopped believing in his confidence. The rest of them did, so for now Mega Man focused on strategies. He and Gravity Man began to discuss strategy, and Gryo Man approached also.

Crystal Bot wasn't going to listen. Bass wanted to add his input to the discussion, but he found his technician pulling on his arm.

"Forte-kun." she said, using her screwdriver to point at one of the smaller labs at the side of the room. "Come on over to the AI lab. I need to get a look at you."

"What? I'm fine." Bass glared down at her, tuggin his arm away. "Aggravate someone else."

"Forte!" she said with stern emphasis. "You haven't been worked on since you were fighting everyone at the pier. That, and I can see the fresh plasma burns on your armor. Don't pretend you weren't getting into a fight. You've got to be in top condition at all times!"

As much as Bass wanted to join the others talk about strategy (and establish himself as someone more in charge), it was really better to give in. How could he ignore his technician when she was being so insistent? Besides, from the very pert expression she wore, he knew that something else was on her mind. He sighed and let her drag him away. If he didn't deal with whatever she wanted now, then it would become a problem later.

They went into the smaller lab meant for detailed work on A.I. There wasn't much in there besides a wall of computers on the right, a tool table to the left, and the repair table in the center that specialized in delicate mental work. The far wall was a pleasant window, showing that the sun was coming up in the trees. It had been a long night. Bass went ahead and sat on the repair table as he was directed by his very insistent assistant. She went to go close the door when Treble nosed his way in. Impatient, Crystal Bot stomped her foot and pointed inward. The confused wolf just scooted in and finally let her shut the door, cutting off the sounds of the others.

"Whew!" Crystal sighed with relief. "Now let's take a look at you. Who exactly were you fighting that shoots plasma? None of the guys you were fighting at the pier had that as their weapon."

"Eh, it was Algorhythym Man." Treble hopped onto the table as Bass answered, and the guy-bot happily rubbed Treble behind his ears. "He's really an idiot. If he was going to leave Jewel Man out in the open and try to use him as bait for a trap, then you think he would have at least brought along some stupid mechaniloids."

"Yeah, I never did get why that guy hates you so much." Crystal Bot plugged Bass into the computer and began to scan his mind. "Well, he likes to hack into people, so lets see how far he got into my anti-virus programs. I'm glad I uploaded those upgrades into you last month."

Crystal didn't say anything further, but Bass knew her too well. He eyed her even as he pet his wolf, but she seemed perfectly calm as she began removing his chestplate to reach the damage underneath. Forte just waited. It would be coming soon. She would definitely talk about what was bugging her...unless that really bad dent in his side proved too much of a distraction. He wished, he hoped.

"Wow, Forte-kun, you really hurt yourself this time." Crystal whistled in amazement. "When you fell after you got Emit Man, you did some major damage. There's a broken metal tent peg stuck in here! You've got so much sand under your armor too."

"Eh, I've had worse." Bass gave Treble's face another playful rub. "Nothing to worry about."

"True, true." Sonata said, contently deciding which of her tools was the best to set her boss right. "You know, that was a nice speech and all that Rock gave, but you know he's underestimating Wily. Wily's really smart when he's mad."

"Yeah, I know. That bastard's really going to tear Cain a new one, and he's not going to stop there. It's going to get pretty ugly."

"So..." Sonata nervously went on as she checked the computer. "I was thinking...maybe...that you would let me do my plan now?"

"I knew all this was going somewhere." Bass groaned. "No, you can't. It's too risky!"

"Risky is fun!" she begged. "Besides, I made all the precautions and stuff. Nothing bad will happen!"

Bass sneered and turned to the wall. Crystal was definitely right about his creator: Dr. Albert Wily was led by revenge, and no one who had ever scorned him in his life ever got away with it. Or if they did, it was only because they were lucky enough for Wily to forget about them. In the mad scientist's wake, others would definitely suffer. Bass' new directive to protect the peace urged him to do something serious to take one of the scientists out of the way completely so that dealing with the other wouldn't be so hard. One enemy they could fight, and while they could win against two (Bass never believed in losing) the collateral would be pretty bad.

All the same, this was Crystal Bot's idea, and she was not the sort of person that had any clue how to strategize or fight. She was a tech nerd, not a fighter, as the difficulty of her fight training had proved. Besides, he wasn't lying. The plan could end up working as well for enemy as for them.

"Sonata..." he finally said. "You're competely nuts."

"But Forte!" the girl-bot whined. "Think about it! It's such a good plan! If it works then we'll just have to deal with-"

Bass stood up from the table, getting very firm (and very angry) as he answered. "I said no! You know what that means? It means _no_. Your plan is too much trouble, too dangerous, and there's a pretty high chance of them finding out how to not only get into this lab but also destroy everything Dr. Light ever created. I'm not going to risk that! Now hurry up here and finish so that those of us that know something about strategy can do something about Wily and Cain. Got it?"

He glared straight into her eyes, and she glared right back. But while Crystal Bot was a stubborn robot, Bass was far more so. She sighed intently, waving her hand to get him to stop staring at her with his typical evil glare. It was hardly an enjoyable experience. Especially not for Crystal Bot. As much as Treble liked girls, he was always on Bass' side. Though Crystal was trying her best to be stubborn, she knew the growling below her was a serious warning.

"Fine, fine." she threw her hands into the air. "Have it your way. Like always."

"Sonata." she was lucky Bass didn't say her normal name - that meant he wasn't as angry as he could be. "You were the one that agreed to come along with me. That means I'm the one that decides what happens, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, got it, boss." she folded her arms, giving the floor so sour a look to make it ashamed of itself. "Whatever you say."

The way she gritted her teeth as she spoke revealed how uncompliant she really felt, without so much as a genuine attempt at hiding it. Crystal Bot wished he would just sit down again on the repair table and let her finish, but the black and gold robot would do no such thing. Once she dared look up at him again, his firm set face beamed right back down.

"Go on." he seethed. "Tell me how you really feel."

"Oh, you're asking me then?" Crystal Bot snapped. "You really want to know? Fine, I'll tell you. You've changed! You're becoming someone I don't know anymore! You used to be cool, but now you're just listening to Rock and doing what he tells you to do! What happened to the champion I used to know?"

"Crystal, I explained this already." Bass stepped in closer. "I'm not offing Rock just because Wily programmed me that way. It's my stupid _job_ to work with the guy, and you're just going to have to get used to it! Or do you want me to end up in the robot museum?"

"Y'know, maybe that _would_ be nice!" Crystal Bot wasn't at all intimidated, and she dared to step forward herself. "The panel could say 'here is Forte, the robot that used to be a not lame guy'!"

"And you'll be one display case over, and it'll say 'stupid broad that couldn't keep her mouth shut'!" Bass snapped back.

"I upgraded you to defeat him! You're supposed to be the champion, not him!" for a girl-bot, Crystal sure knew how to snarl. "And at the very minute you could have destroyed him, you and Rock are BFFs! How am I supposed to work with that?"

"What the hell did you want me to do?" By now there was nothing that could keep Bass from shouting. "Kill him and get arrested by the REA? Get my memory deleted? Run and hide like that idiot Proto Man? Dang it, Crystal, he saved my life! How the hell can I kill him now? If you don't understand that, then there's no way in the world I could possibly get it through your skull that Rock doesn't deserve to die!"

Crystal Bot wavered only slightly. From the look on her face anyone would have guessed that Bass had wronged her somehow, rather than the opposite. Her sad scowl was enough to make anyone (besides Bass) feel sorry for her. But still, Bass was Bass. He only glared at her in that authoritative way that always made Crystal Bot uncomfortable.

"Well..." she said, trying to make him stop. "I just...I just want you to listen to me. I'm trying to be a good guy, but if you don't let me...I just...I just miss blowing stuff up..."

"OH, I'm SORRY." I could by no means convey in writing the amount of sarcasm in Bass' voice. "Little Sonata wants to blow stuff up and she's all sad I won't let her. Boo-hoo."

"Shut up!" she yelled. "I just wanted to do my plan so that I could pretend to be a bad guy for a while and then get it out of my system. Sheesh. You don't have to be a jerk about it."

"So that's what all this is about." Bass just rolled his eyes. "Just when I thought you were getting used to everything."

"I thought I was too. But then we come back here, and...well, Rock. He's such a little dope and I can't stand him." Her eyes, seeming innocent, wandered upward to Bass. "Um, Forte...you don't have to hold back anymore. It's not like Dr. Light is here-"

Before Crystal Bot even knew what was happening, her ears were filled with noise: the noise of Bass shoving her against the wall. His large hand was over his mouth, and his red eyes glowed as lava. Crystal Bot couldn't help letting out a whimper.

"For your own sake." Bass hissed. "I'm not going to let you finish that sentence. Now, you're going to go get my spare chestplate, and when you come back you're going to act like a rational person. Got it?"

As cruel as Bass seemed, he wasn't actually holding her against the wall that hard. Crystal Bot was able to shove his arm away with a stubborn pout, to conveying that he might have won the fight, but she wasn't going to act happy about it and pretend everything was fine.

"Yeah, I got it."

That was all the angry girl-bot muttered before opening the door and heading out, taking the cloudy storm of her annoyance with her.

-t-

Roll didn't know what to do. She was tempted to just leave the house, but if she did there was nowhere for her to go. She began to wish that she had made more friends with outside people before Dr. Light died. Sure, she knew plenty of people and very few were not perfectly kind to her. Still, Roll wasn't that close to so much as one.

As much as she really wanted to leave the house, Roll was only in her room, sitting there on her perfectly made bed with a red comforter. She hardly ever used it, and never to sleep on. It wasn't as if she needed to sleep. Somehow the cute little room just felt incomplete without a bed. It was a small room, as Roll was usually busy in other parts of the house, but Dr. Light insisted that she have a place for her own sanctitude and hobbies. Roll did little more than knit or read in her room. It was small, a narrow rectangle. The bed was up against the window with its bright curtains and yellow flowers. The closet was next to the door, and on the other side of the room from the window was her standing mirror, very elegant. With her vanity next to the bed, the room was complete.

Roll just sat there. The part of her mind that never stopped working was going over some things she needed to buy for the lab, though she doubted that she would be able to get any of it, not now in all this trouble. She sighed. Maybe the shipping loss from the other parts of Monstropolis could be make up for by the still intact shipping fleet.

No one else knew. Her brothers had never been there and Bass didn't remember - Roll wasn't sure that she wanted him to, as nice as it would be to have someone to talk to about it. This was Bass, after all. At this point, only Roll remembered the Mavericks and the Maverick Hunters. She knew that the future included X's new wars against a virus brought about by his best friend, Zero, the very robot anyone in the lab would give their right arm to see destroyed (being robots, they could just get the arm replaced).

Roll had met Zero, many years into the future. She knew, even if he never told her, about all the struggles he faced. She could see in his eyes how much it hurt him that he had unintentionally done so much evil to the world, and he bore a regret that Roll wondered if anyone really could handle the weight of. It crushed him, driving him to do everything he could to end Mavericks for good. It was hard for her to be impressed with his fighting abilities when most of them arose from his experiences fighting to atone for his sins.

Even worse was the knowledge that Zero had failed. In that lifetime, that horrible future, Roll had met the strangest girl she ever saw. Just to look at the author, no one would ever see more than a nerdy girl with only a mild grasp of fashion. But no, this girl was apparently writing everything that happened to her.

"Oh, that's right..." Roll murmured with contempt. "She's not _the_ author, she's _an_ author. There's a lot of them apparently."

GrimMoody claimed to have been writing her story ever since she met Crystal Bot for the first time, and Roll still wasn't sure what to believe. Moody had told her a lot of things. The Maverick War indeed would end, but only to morph into the Cyber Elf War which saw the deaths of most humans and the destruction of even more reploids. After that was the Second Maverick War. After this, still another war for another century. Even worse, despite the fact that these wars were all supposedly won by the good guys, humans died out. Reploids too were gone, including X, Zero, and everyone else Roll had known in that future. This left the earth barren and empty for apparently a new race of people, one that GrimMoody knew practically nothing about. Roll wanted to scream. It was bad enough that she had to learn all this, but being from someone that apparently didn't know the end of it all just made things worse.

The author gave Roll the task of somehow setting everything right. She sent Roll back into the past, where her family and friends were all alive, all optimistic. Roll could hardly describe herself as upbeat; she had seen the future, and the future sucked. The words from her brother that used to comfort her when he went out to fight were now useless to her. He had said those sorts of things in the alternate future, the one that led up to the Robot Apocalypse and the beginning of each and every disaster. Rock's fighting against Wily had not saved anyone in the end. Where was the eternal peace he fought so hard for?

_Well, GrimMoody seems to think that I can change things..._ Roll thought. _I don't think she knows me very well. I fight cockroaches, not Wily-bots. I don't even like doing that. Roaches are so nasty! Ew!_

But Roll had fought before. There was a time when she was believed to be the only sentient robot that survived the Robot Apocalypse. She had been repaired by the eldest of Dr. Cain's sons, Rodney. He hadn't done a very good job, and Roll was plugged into her secondary and unused memory data card. She forgot her entire past and strove to protect the humans of the world beyond the apocalypse, though there wasn't much direct fighting to do there other than take out a few glitchy mechaniloids and blow up some tanks that a few evil men wanted to use to rule over eastern Europe.

After breaking down one last time, Roll reawoke in Maverick Hunter HQ, where she met her brother Mega Man X. She also met Alia, who was very cute and professional. Less so were the goofy Pallette and serious Layer, the latter of whom had a crush on Zero. Roll giggled a little at the thought, though that laugh petered out. Roll doubted that the purple navigator could even think of him in that light if she ever found out why Zero was always different, always keeping himself separate from the other Hunters. His guilt would not disappear.

Bass too had survived in that alternate universe, but he was changed. He hadn't destroyed Zero, and that meant that he took the guilt of everything Zero had caused on his own self. After all, hadn't the very first thing he set out to do once he left Dr. Wily been to go after Zero? Both Bass and Zero fought for the sole reason of making up for their sins. The difference between the two Wily brothers was very evident: Bass could actually hide his bitterness under his violent and rude demeanor. That, however, was the only difference. Their guilt destroyed them both in the end.

_I still don't know how I can really help. Even all the fighting I did was just spar with Bass._

Roll just sighed. She had no power and no options. Things had already changed drastically from the other path in time, but that was no guarantee that everything was going to turn out alright. Roll promised herself she would try.

There came a knock at the door, a gentle one.

"Um, come in."

She expected Mega Man to enter, but instead it was her other brother. Proto Man came in, glancing around at the cute girlyness of the room. It didn't appear that he liked the flower wallpaper, but she didn't expect him to. She was tempted to giggle; even people who didn't know Proto Man could guess he had a sort of allergy to pretty daises and red carnations decorating a wall.

"Hi, Blues!" Roll merrily greeted him. "I thought you didn't like being in the lab."

Proto Man shook his head at the wall (as if that would make the offensive flower wallpaper go away), before bringing his gaze to his sibling. "I don't, but you're my sister. I know I always hang out with Rock, but we're family too."

He sat down beside Roll, a looking a little curiously at the bed. If he was wondering why a robot would have one, he didn't ask. "You seem like you're taking this situation very hard. What can I do to help?"

Had he been reading her mind? Well, it was certainly very like him. Roll relaxed a little, calmly pulling a stray strand of hair out of her face. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, feeling a bit mischevious.

"You can tell me a story."

"A story?"

"Yeah. About something you did out on your travels. I want to hear about that."

Proto Man nodded faintly, thinking to himself. He disappeared into his own mind as he searched for a story he could tell his sister. After a moment, his mouth opened slightly, almost out of nervousness. Before Roll could really observe this, Proto Man went back to his neutral calm and began to speak in a softer tone. The story was an important one to him, Roll guessed.

"A long time ago," he said. "I was helping a small family pay their mortgage. They couldn't afford to live in their house anymore, and I wanted to find a way to pay it off. It took a while, but I managed to get what I needed."

"Where from?"

Proto Man let the corner of his mouth go up a bit. "Dr. Wily's pocket. I suppose it's my fault he went to Dr. Cossack instead of having the funds to build more robots of his own. Now don't interrupt."

Roll giggled. "Sorry."

"Anyway, I gave the money to the bank and told them to pay it off. I didn't actually want to tell the family about it, but I did want to leave a note on their door. I tried to leave it there, but one of the lights was on. I waited until midnight, but the light still didn't turn off. So I went up to the door and just tried to put it through the mail slot. I didn't know until then that there the little girl that lived in the house was watching me the whole time through the window. This was several years ago, and I wasn't as stealthy then as I am now."

His sister giggled again as he continued. "Just as I was about to leave the note, a little girl opened the door. She wasn't afraid of me for some reason. She just pointed her finger at me and called me a stalker. I think she was joking. She said that as punishment for my crime I had to give her my scarf."

"Aw, that's so cute!"

"Yes, she was very cute." Proto Man nodded. "I told her I wasn't a stalker so I didn't have to, but she really wanted my 'cool' scarf. She said to give it to her because her...dad had died."

Roll thought that the sadness in his voice was only sympathy. "Oh, so that's why they couldn't afford to keep the house."

"Exactly. I told her I couldn't give her my scarf because it was from my dad."

"Dr. Light gave it to you?" Roll asked.

"No, I stole it from his mechaniloids. They were making so many of the poly-aluminoid scarves that I'm not sure Dr. Light even noticed. Now what did I tell you about interrupting?"

"Oh, sorry!"

"It's alright. Of course the girl didn't want to take the scarf once she knew that. However, since I was still 'a creepy stalker' she said I owed her a box of cookies. 'One of the really, really big ones', she said. I offered to go and get them right away, but she said that I had to be at her house tomorrow at four so that I could attend a little tea party involving a number of stuffed animals."

Roll was trying her hardest not to interrupt, but imagining someone as cool as Proto Man sitting at a miniature table surrounded by teddy bears as a little girl served him imaginary tea was just too funny. Roll was laughing into her hands, trying to force herself not to comment. Proto Man smiled a bit awkwardly. As much as he tried to guard his dignity, it didn't always work.

"I felt like being nice, so I went. She had a little tea party all set up...ugh...those chairs were so small. She had everything, even real tea. Once I told her I was a robot, she ran off and got a carton of engine oil from the garage. Only later did I find out that she hadn't told her mother about me, and she was supposed to be at her neighbor's house while her mother was away. That was awkward, but by then her mother had talked to the people at the bank so she went easy on me."

"That's the sweetest thing I've heard in a long time!" Roll could hardly stand the cuteness. "Aw, what was the little girl's name?"

Proto Man was a little reluctant to answer, but he did, shoving aside his discomfort. "Leila. I check on her from time to time. It's been several years since we met. She's about ready to go to college now."

"Really? Oh, I'd just love to meet her."

That got to Proto Man. His face straightened out into a flat line, and he was more uncomfortable than ever. "Um, perhaps not. I haven't spoken to her in a while, and I'm sure she's busy with schoolwork."

"If you say so." Roll knew better to push Blues when he was being stubborn - even with so little of his face exposed, she knew his moods. "That's a good story. Thank you. I feel a lot better now."

"Good." he said. "Roll, it would be better for Rock if you stopped worrying so much. He's always concerned about you. Besides, you've got Team 5, Team 9, and the Cossack-bots to help him protect the world and you. Bass too. Even if he is a jerk he's going to make sure that Zero's dead."

"Oh, push come to shove Bass is very nice, in his own way." Roll smiled a bit, thinking of the memories that she couldn't share. "You should have seen him when I ...well, when he was around Dr. Light, I mean."

Proto Man didn't really want to talk about Bass, and by far disagreed with Roll. He wouldn't argue about it, though. "See? You still have the power to be optimistic. Besides, look at Auto and Crystal Bot. They're smart and they'll protect the lab from anything those crazy scientists decide they're going to do. And haven't you heard about Armor Core Antivirus? It's supposed to protect robots from Dr. Cain's viruses that he uses to take control of robots. ...Roll?"

She was acting strange. Up till that point she'd been open and getting more cheery, but all of a sudden she just stopped and stiffened, her eyes growing wide. She remembered too well what Armor Core Antivirus was and what integral part it had played in the robot apocalypse. As soon as she turned to Blues, she realized that she had no way of explaining her concern to him. How was she supposed to tell him that this "anti-virus" was really from Dr. Wily, and he used it in an alternate universe to destroy robotics as they knew it?

"I heard bad things about Armor Core...rumors." Roll said nervously. "Um...Auto said he didn't like it."

"Auto prefers using his own anti-virus programs. You can't expect him to use anything on the market." Proto Man said. "Since when do you listen to anyone talking about technology?"

"I don't know...it just gives me a bad feeling." the housekeeper-bot said, trying to sound like she was making sense. "I don't like it somehow. If it's such an important anti-virus, then we should know a lot about the company that programmed it."

"I can check it out for you." Proto Man offered. "If it helps you."

"Thanks, Blues!" Roll couldn't describe the relief she felt. There was another anti-virus Wily had used in his evil schemes, but of course Roll couldn't just directly say it. She wasn't less clever than her brothers, however. Feigning a sort of paranoid fear, she nervously rubbed her hands together and said, "Um, the army doesn't use Armor Core for their anti-virus, do they?"

"Not that I know of. I can check." he squeezed Roll's arm before getting up and heading for the door. "Don't worry about a thing."

"Thanks. I'll always feel better knowing that Blues is out there to protect me!"

Proto Man froze for a moment, standing there in front of the door as still as a tree. He turned back, sending a happy smile back at his sister, who smiled herself in return. After that, Blues left, any hint of merriness still left on his face completely gone. "Always" was such a strong word.

The story was a nice one, and Roll found herself giggling. _I should have asked him if he was wearing a tiara or something. Aw, Proto Man does the sweetest things. I wish I could meet Leila. _

Roll flopped back on the bed, amused even by this girlish act. Better still, she had told Proto Man about Dr. Wily's "anti-virus programs". That meant that Wily wasn't going to be able to infect the world's robots. She hadn't mentioned Hitenshi Firewall and Light Subsidiaries, but neither of those programs existed yet. The former wouldn't be around for another three years, assuming it was going to happen at all with Proto Man investigating. Light Subsidiaries was created when a downturn in the economy made Auto create an anti-virus program to make more money for the lab. Roll shuddered to think that Dr. Wily somehow got control of this.

_Oh...of course it was Dr. Cain. Wily was dead by this point in the other universe._ Roll remembered. _Wait, now that I know the economy is going down, I can plan accordingly. Ooh, I can buy stock in the companies that make it afterward. Hee hee, I'm such a time-travelling cheat!_

And of course, that reminded her of how she got to the past in the first place. Roll at once looked up, somehow imagining that the author was watching her from an upward angle. There was really no reason to assume this, but Roll felt giddy and not scientific (and how does science apply to authors, anyway?). She just beamed a brilliant smile upward, showing off her perfect teeth.

"Thank you so much, GrimMoody!" she exclaimed. "Now everything is going to be okay! I just know it!"

All the same, Roll felt a little bored. She wanted to get out of the house and do something. The shipping was a mess, so there wasn't really any point to shopping. Their store rooms were pretty well stocked. All the same, she wanted something to do that involved her getting up and going out into the sunlight. Monstropolis wasn't going to be destroyed after all. An idea hit her, and Roll immediately sent out a transmission.

_" - Hey, Sona-chan, what are you doing? - "_

_" - I'm going out to get a part for Dub. - " _came the reply. _" - Mr. Redford said that it made it here before the truck stops got destroyed. - "_

_" - Cool. Where are you now? - "_

_" - Over by Great Gems. I wanted to go see Jewel Man, but it's really busy in there right now. - "_

That settled it. In an upward flash of red and white, Roll teleported away. Next thing she knew, the world had assembled itself into the street outside Jewel Man's workplace. The street was as vibrant as always, and Roll made sure to land beside the building rather than on the sidewalk. Crystal Bot wasn't far away. In fact, she and the spider-bot were just walking past the photographer's shop next door before Crystal Bot heard the teleport beam land behind her.

"Roll-chan!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "Bored today at the lab?"

"Yes, I'm bored out of my mind." Roll-chan agreed as she merrily walked up to her auburn friend. It wasn't quite true, but surely she would get bored if she stayed there any longer. "Let me go with you to get the part for Dub. What part is it, anyway?"

"Oh, just a replacement frame augment." Crystal Bot patted Dub atop his flat head. "Dub's second front left leg acts weird when it retracts."

With that, the girl-bots headed down the street and started to head for Redford's shop. Dub walked ahead of the girls with his spidery stride, and they strolled behind and talked. It wasn't too far by foot, but still Roll had to ask.

"So why are we walking?" Roll asked. "We can just teleport there."

"Yeah, but what fun is that? Besides, you're not in any rush to get back to the lab, are you?"

"Definitely not! I've been stuck in the lab for years. I want to do something different."

"What, you mean get a new job? You could be a maid or something."

"I'm not sure I want to do something like that..."

Roll had tried being a housekeeper in other homes in the alternate universe, and it just didn't work. She inwardly groaned, thinking of all the suggestions Crystal Bot might have that were occupations she'd already tried. How could she explain that she didn't like any of them? What reasons could she give? Then again, Roll wasn't sure she had any reasons. She'd simply tried each different task and it felt wrong. Being a floral shop worker with Hornet Man was no good, being a nurse was too hectic, and she just felt weird about working in a nursing home.

_Of course I'm being silly. _Roll told herself. _I should be grateful! The robot apocalypse isn't going to happen, the Maverick virus won't ever spread, humans won't die out, and my family is going to live. What's silly job trouble to that? I'd rather have a new job every six months for the rest of my life then have the world end! Ooh...I should be a temp! Eh...nevermind._

Speaking out loud, Roll went back to her happy self. After all, she was hanging out with a friend. She blithely asked, "So, do you think it would be more fun to work at a circus or at the country fair? I'm thinking about the fair because I can make some of my homemade apple butter, but at the circus I'd get to work with animals. What do you think?"

Roll expected Crystal Bot to say something about shoveling elephant poo, but instead the tech-bot had gone silent. Something about her was no longer chirpy. Crystal Bot blinked, finally noticing by Roll's silence that she was being asked a question. She turned to Roll, serious but instead pretending to be casual. It didn't work.

"So, Roll...why don't you head on back to the lab?" Crystal started tugging at her hair. "I can...get this done by myself."

"What are you talking about?" Roll laughed. "I'm not going back to the lab. I'm so tired of staring at those walls all day! I've already cleaned them twice!"

"Ach, you're stubborn." Crystal Bot tried to wink. "Um, why don't you just, um, oh hey! Let's go over here! I think it's a shortcut! Come on, Dub!"

Crystal Bot grabbed Roll and started tugging her down an alley, going behind the old arcade and ice cream shop. Roll, forced to follow at Crystal's fast pace, could barely keep up. Thinking quickly, she realized that this wasn't a shortcut at all. In fact, they were going the wrong way.

"Sona! This doesn't go toward Mr. Redford's shop! What's going on?"

Without warning, Crystal Bot stopped and tugged Roll nearly off her feet, forcing her on her knees. Roll tried to remember what to do when someone grabs you like that, but at once every thought of martial arts she knew was blasted out of her mind by a sudden blast of crystal energy. The electric pink surrounded her and for several seconds that pink was all that she could see.

"Hey, Roll-_chan_," Crystal spat. "Remember last year when I said that I'm not your friend? You should've listened."

Pink. Roll fell limp, almost settling to the ground but for the arm that Crystal Bot held. Crystal Bot grinned viciously before tucking her pink crystal back into her hood.

"Dub, hurry!"

The obedient spider-bot ran up to her, and Crystal Bot put the unconscious Roll atop him. Four of his arms hastily grabbed her and secured her for carrying. The footsteps behind them were completely silent, but the girl-bot nonetheless turned around to face Epic Man. She grinned, and the spined and spiked robot couldn't help grinning himself in return.

"Hiya, Epic!" Crystal Bot winked. "What took you so long?"

\\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- Mega Man, you're so cute you make me squee. D'aww...

- And for my return, an extra long chapter! Now the bad news: there's a possiblity of iffy updates. It's not entirely for certain, but due to moving troubles the possibility exists that I won't be able to get my internet connected on this computer. That, however, is an iffy possibility. So much is up in the air...like my sanity.

- There hasn't been enough korean in my story so far. Okay, korean lesson of the day. To say that something is convenient, you add _p'yonhalehyo_ to the end of a sentence. Like, you can say "Wal-Mart _p'yonhalehyo_" to say Wal-Mart's convenient. If you add _koh _to it, as in _p'yonhalkoh-ehyo_, that means it will be convenient; future tense.

- In case anyone forgot and for new readers, directives are the principles that first generation robots follow because they aren't capable of choosing their own core purpose. Mega Man's is to protect the peace, and Bass changed his to that during the events of Okkusenman. It was to be the best robot in the world before that, and there must be a subdirective or something running around in Bass, because it's still affecting his choices. Proto Man's directive is unknown.

- Notedly, Dr. Light did notice that the yellow scarf was missing. He kept a good record of how much poly-aluminoid fiber clothes his mechaniloids produced.

=====Auto  
**"Mega Man! I am your biggest fan!"**  
Good point: Pure and innocent  
Bad point: Trouble maker  
Like: Riddles  
Dislike: Study

Yeah...I pretty much ignored this for my stories. At the beginning of writing my stories, I didn't really like Auto or see the point of his creation. However, after seeing more of him in MM7, 9, and 10, I have since recanted. All the same, he's never had a big part in my stories, so I've never written that much about him. Is anyone disappointed with that? There haven't really been that many Auto stories out there. Maybe I should write one at some point.

Hm...a couple of those points seem detrimental to someone who's going to assist a scientist. Troublemaker? Um, electronics can be pretty sensitive as far as being vulnerable to trouble. Definitely not good in a lab. And shouldn't he study if he's going to help out Dr. Light? Well, now that I see this, I still think I'm not really going to regard it. Kind of like how I ignore Fire Man being "redneckish". I like it because it's funny, but to me that is not the real Fire Man (I tend to disregard the Powered Up series as far as plot goes anyway - it's like Battle Network, it's own separate thing).

In any case, I now regard Auto as a humorous and ever optimistic tech guy that basically serves as a storage of Dr. Light's information as well as lab mechanic until Light's return in hologram form. He's always working and enjoys it very much. He likes Japanese culture and visits there whenever he can get a chance, and he's good friends with Dr. Imahara. He considers himself Japanese because most of his original parts came from there.

I guess I can put his dislike of study in there, because he's too impatient to learn - he wants to know everything right away. And I guess he's innocent too. He's not a troublemaker. I mean, how many times in the games has he actually made trouble? He teased Rock with a met hat once, but that was it and that hardly counts as trouble. Yeah, I tend to regard characters' actions in the actual game as more important than any notes on that character. I really don't like rebelling against these character profiles, but in Auto's case I think I have to.

=====Shadow Man

**"I can hardly wait for the surprise!"**

Good point: Flexibility

Bad point: Impulsiveness

Likes: To surprise others

Dislikes: Obvious tricks

Shadow Man is an alien robot. Or at least that's what the wiki says. I've been debating myself as to whether or not I'm going to follow it. I always found it sort of stupid. Then again, the plot of MM3 is that both Wily and Light worked together to create the Team 3 robots, and it seems strange to me that Dr. Light would create a ninja robot. Samurai, maybe, but ninjas are sneaky assassins. Not really a Light Industry sort of thing even if Dr. Wily is involved. I'm pretty unresolved on the issue, but for now I'll go with the alien thing.

So yeah, alien. Shadow Man was found in the wreckage of an asteroid that landed in an abandoned field near the lab, broken and almost destroyed. Wily and Light found him. Dr. Light wasn't so keen on the idea of repairing a robot with the stealth power of Shadow Man, but Wily pointed out that it was against Dr. Light's own ethics to just let a robot remain dead. Thomas agreed, and Shadow Man was repaired and given a job in the Gamma Project. He was taken over by Wily when he betrayed Dr. Light, and he's been following the mad scientist ever since. He was immediately repaired after his defeat by Mega Man, and is the only Wily-bot to never have been on display in the robot museum (the only others are Cossack-bots and Signal Man).

Shadow Man was surprisingly a very friendly robot as a good guy. He spoke kindly with the others, and was surprisingly talkative for a ninja-bot. Dr. Light assigned him to lead the others in what was then called the Gamma Squad. They were excellent protectors of Gamma who worked well with humans. Shadow Man was in fact good friends with Richard Copenhagen.

Reprogrammed by Wily, Shadow Man became more silent. He commited horrible crimes without so much as a word of regret, and he came to be one of the most loyal Wily-bots. While still technically the leader of Team 3, the ninja-bot refused to acknowledge this any longer. Any attempts the others made at requesting his influence were mostly ignored or given trivial answers, as Shadow Man grew to like working alone. He even started dipping his shurikens into poison in order to be more deadly to humans.

Now the ninja-bot is very evil, though still friendly to those he finds clever. He hasn't been seen in months.


	12. Switched Sides

"So...I send you out to bring me information about Light Laboratories' security systems, and all I get for my trouble is a bunch of losses?" Dr. Cain slapped a disk against his hand, more for sound than for damage. "Well, I suppose it's not so bad. I could have lost _competent_ robots. And then, right at the end, someone got the fool idea to attack Bass by himself! If you're going to set a trap, then make sure that it's actually a trap worth springing!"

Algorhythm Man didn't say anything. He knew better than to back talk his master. All he could do was lean further back against the decrepit wall of the old Wily Castle and try to keep up the image of a repentant robot. He hoped that they would be out of there soon. The old place with its random metal creaking in the wind gave him the creeps. Fortunately, most of Dr. Cain's possessions were already stored away on the stolen 18 wheeler, ready for departure to the submarine.

"It's like I keep telling you." Bullet Man said. He was the only one not yet tired of explaining himself to his master, though even he was beginning to realize how futile it was. "I think Commando Man has extra loyalty programs or something. He led me right to the one robot I'm weak against."

"Weak? I don't want to hear about weak!" Cain flipped a hand at his robot. "Look at Signal Man over there. He's weak to any robot, and yet he's the only reason why I'm out of prison and back at the work!"

They did all look at their poor companion made of the traffic light parts and old car engines. He and Demi were busily packing up the last of Cain's posessions, namely his personal computer (it was never far from the evil doctor at any point) and his discs containing his many invented viruses. Or more specifically, Signal Man was packing. Demi found more entertainment in sitting on the crates, criticizing Signal Man's packing skills, and taking a ride on them as the more compliant robot stacked one above the other.

"We only have a few of the Wily robots left." Cain interrupted everyone's observations. "We'll use them to cover our tracks as we get to the sub. If you fellows can bother to do that right. Honestly, all I wanted was to find out how to get into their lab, not destroy them yet. I hope at least one of their idiots is out of it for good from all this. You're all very lucky that Frantic Man managed to get something. If only he found a robot closer to the Lights than Jewel Man! And someone please tell me that Zero is secure!"

"He is, Master." Demi jumped off of his throne of wooden crates and scrambled on his paws to Dr. Cain. "I've already got him on the submarine now."

"Good, good. Now I just hope Psycho Man's repairs go as easily. I'll fix him on the sub, and-"

_" - Dr. Cain, - " _Epic Man spoke directly to his master through the chip in Dr. Cain's head, though it wasn't encoded strongly enough to keep the other robots from hearing. _" - I have something that's bound to make you very happy. Please send out Frantic Man first, though. This one is going to need a bit of a careful eye around her at all times. - "_

_" - Oh? This better be good then. Frantic Man, you heard him. - "_

_" - Zzzt, squeet-spunkk. - "_

Even Frantic Man's transmissions were competely incomprehensible to those out of the know. In any case, he did as he was told. Moments later, Epic Man entered the room with a glorious, smug smiile on his face. Behind him entered a very confident Crystal Bot. Dub walked along beside her on four of his legs while the other four held Roll, the offering to the villainous doctor. Seeing Dr. Cain, Crystal Bot smiled sweetly and attemped to go closer. At once Frantic Man's clown arm grabbed her shoulder. Epic Man shook his head with all the sternness of an elder brother and Bullet Man found himself edging nearer to his creator. And for all the good it did, short little Demi stood up to protect his master, though he did little more than cover Cain's knees.

"Well, um..." she giggled. "I guess I better explain myself."

Frantic Man let go of Crystal Bot's shoulder, and she gave a very cute curtsy. She cleared her throat and began. "I don't know if you know anything about me, but I've been being a good girl for a while, and I'm plain sick of it. I'm tired of being told by the government what to do, and I'm tired of Forte being a bossy jerk who never listens to me. Good guys are lame. I know at some point you're going to have to destroy Mega Man's lab and beat him and Forte, so you're gonna need my help!"

Dr. Cain only frowned at her, rubbing his chin a bit. "Is that right?"

"She claims she would have told Mega Man where we were if I didn't agree to take her with me." Epic Man grinned. "Funny, isn't it?"

Cain didn't think so. He raised an eyebrow in doubt. This shiny girl-bot didn't exactly impress him. "We found you snooping around to find out about the Wily Castles. How did you find out we were here?"

"Easy. I know the technology Wily always used!" Crystal Bot enjoyed the bragging, and she was tempted to spin around a giggle as she spoke. "If you've been taking control of his robots, then you obviously need to understand the way the doctor would always program, and that can't be done without looking at least one of his fortresses. Wily's computers got upgraded when Mega Man was fighting Team 7, so you could only hack into his first six fortresses without knowing his new coding. Or at least it would take you like five years or something to hack through it. So it was easy to guess! Wily's first two fortresses were utterly destroyed, and the police tore down the third to build the robot museum. Russia's got his fourth and it blew up real pretty. It was even a skull! I checked fortress five - it's a noodle shop now - and after that the only place it could have been was here!"

Crystal Bot giddily posed with her confident fists in the air as she waited for the others to congratulate her genius. They weren't her friends, and they did no such thing. Epic Man and his master eyed each other with suspicion, and Bullet Man only kept his ever narrow gaze on her, ready to move in if she made any sudden moves. Algorhythm Man was the only one that smiled, though he was a little nervous that Dr. Cain might see him.

"So...uh, I brought you this offering." Crystal Bot waved Dub forward. "I can't just give you the teleport codes to the lab, because I'm sure Auto already changed them by now. Especially since my offering is none other than Roll Light!"

The four of Dub's legs that he wasn't using for walking unfurled themselves from Roll, then placed her gently at Dr. Cain's feet. With greedy eyes Cain immediately bent down to look. Epic Man grinned with delight. This was definitely turning out better than he suspected. Cain, however, wasn't quite convinced.

"This is all very well and good." Nikola said, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants. No matter how much they told Frantic Man to sweep, dirt always seemed to get into the decrepit fortress somehow. "But I know your past. You're a Wily number. You could have just brought Roll to him."

Here Crystal Bot paused. She let out a breath of air, clinging to one arm as she let her gaze fall to the side. She knew she was going to have to tell the story, and no matter how many times she thought about it, it still hurt.

"I'm not really a Wily number." she started off slow. "I'm the only child of my creator, Crystal Man. You can say Wily's my grandpa if you want. Thing is...he killed my dad. He was mad at Crystal Man for trying to upgrade Team 5 behind his back."

"Mad for upgading? That sounds like a sorry story to me." Epic Man said.

"It may have more to do with questioning Wily's ability to conquer the world. I saw a memory of it, and Crystal Man basically told Wily that his methods were bad. Wily doesn't like being talked to like that, and he has these...moods." Crystal shifted uncomfortably as she remembered. "It's really scary when he's mad. So, that's why I came to you! I'm tired of being a stupid good guy that can't blow stuff up or scare people! I want to be with a bad guy that's actually _nice_."

Demi laughed a rusty, creaking laugh. "I like this girl!"

Epic Man also grinned, looking rather vicious as he did. "Amusing, if nothing else."

In his own little code, Frantic Man made a comment to Dr. Cain, who nodded. Crystal Bot guessed that they were discussing her words the day before. What she said in desperation to save Jewel Man's life would confirm her story.

"Hmph." Dr. Cain wrinkled his nose at her. "Just more proof of why robots are the dregs of society. One minute you think you can trust them, and the next they're stabbing you in the back. I'm just lucky I know how to program. Very well, miss 'Sinistra'. You're here now so you're going to serve me. What exactly can you offer me in terms of abilities? Wait a moment - Signal Man! Stop being a slacker and get Roll here to our transporation!"

"Aw, I want to hear more."

Dr. Cain turned around and glared. Signal Man wasn't one to disobey, so he just let the lights of his face flicker gently as he lifted Roll off of the floor. Dub scrambled closer to Crystal Bot, waiting like a servant for some order. Once the strange looking robot removed Roll, Cain turned back to Crystal.

"Well?"

"Well, I'm really, really smart!" she gleamed, giggling. "And I've been with Wily a long time, so I know how he thinks and how he programs. I've done a lot of work on his machines and I'm really great at building mechaniloids. I have my crystal eye, and I can generate crystals that can power up stuff and be sold for money. If I'm standing still, I can even generate an instant death spike! ...It doesn't work if I move, though. Those things are hard to stabilize."

Crystal Bot stiffened. Only after she had spoken and was staring an angry Nikola Cain in the face did she remember his own death spike mishaps. The last time he worked with instant death spikes, he was trying to fill an entire room with them. He didn't know then that such a thing wasn't possible. The electrical backing for the spikes wasn't stable enough, and this explosion not only ripped apart his lab but seriously injured him and temporarily ended his bid to rid the world of robot dependency.

Thankfully it was this awkward moment that Algorhythm Man chose to interrupt. "You worked on Bass. You can give me his full schematics and list his weaknesses, yes?"

Of course the orange robot was interested in this. His teeth shone greedily with his evil smile, and he was rubbing his hands together delightedly. Seeing how much he enjoyed this, Crystal Bot smiled too, with equal nastiness.

"Sure I can. And guess what? I have some scematics of Mr. Mega Man too!" she giggled, patting her mechaniloid's head. "It's all stored right here on good ol' Dub. All you gotta do to get the information is let me be a bad guy too!"

"Let?" Dr. Cain gestured to Algorhythm Man. "You're with us now, no matter what it is you want."

Algorhythm Man at once dashed around to Crystal Bot's side, grabbing her arms and holding her tightly. She struggled only a little; it was clear from the strength his arms that she wasn't going anywhere. She wasn't sure she wanted Algorhythm Man so close. His laugh was creepy.

"I won't have a free willed robot working for me. You're going to have to go through some reprogramming." Cain started musing to himself about all the necessary work this would take. "I can check your memories to see if you are lying about Dr. Wily. Don't worry though. I'm sure you'll blow something up by the time this is all over."

"Um...?" She tested his temper, asking with hesitation. "...Lots of things?"

"Heh, sure." Cain half-smiled for once. "Why not?"

Dub started to make noise. He was frightened for Crystal Bot, but too afraid to pull the Cain-bot away from her. With a nervous "excuse me", Crystal Bot reached over and pushed a button the mechaniloid. His legs retracted into his body, and he became nothing more than a green box with four claws on each side. Demi went over to him and picked him up, though the body of Dub was a bit bulky for someone like Demi to haul around. It was like a toddler carrying a giant plush animal.

"Good. Your turn now, sweetheart."

Somehow the word "sweetheart" was not at all comforting when it came from someone like Algorhythm Man. Crystal Bot shuddered, but she didn't resist as he reached over to her neck and deactivated her. It wasn't as if someone would accept a new robot on their team without mistrust and reprogramming. Crystal knew what she was getting into. She slumped into Algorhythm Man's arms.

"Bring her to the sub as well." Cain said. "We've spent too much time in this dump, and if she could find us then there's no telling who else can. Epic Man, you stay here until we're gone and then destroy this place. Demi, put that thing in a crate and help him. _- Signal Man, once you get Roll packed up, come back for more of my things. Sight Man, keep everyone covered until this is done. - "_

_" - I certainly will! - "_

_" - I've got my eyes open, boss. - "_

Algorhythm Man grinned at his inactive prisoner. He got a better grip on Crystal Bot, putting an arm around her waist so that he too could haul his cargo to the truck. Just as he was about to get her into a better position to carry, he felt a tap on that shoulder. Algorhythm Man turned around to see that Frantic Man was behind him, his arms open as if volunteering to bring her.

"I've got this little darling. Go haul crates or something." Al scoffed. "I don't need you to do everything for me."

"Algorhythm Man," Dr. Cain suddenly interrupted. "I need you to keep your eyes open and your scanners running at the guard outpost. Sight Man can only see so much at once, so you help him keep this area clear until we leave. Got it?"

"Er...yes, Master."

Annoyed that he was being contradicted, Algorhythm Man shoved Crystal over at Frantic Man. "Fine, you carry her. Just make sure not to drop her. I'm going to defeat Fish, and she's going to help me find out how."

"Zzzt" was Frantic Man's only reply. He caught Crystal Bot in his clown arm and pulled her up over his shoulder, then started for the 18 wheeler. Algorhythm Man stared with annoyance only for a moment before he teleported out. It wouldn't do to get caught delaying orders.

-t-

"Roll! Where are you, Roll?"

It was horrifying. Auto had come home to find no trace of the daughter of Light, and he called Mega Man home from the police station. That was why the blue bomber was now running from room to room, trying to find some clue to where she had gone. There was nothing. No notes, no messages recorded on the computer, and Roll's purses were all still in her room. Auto was in the main lab, telephoning friends to find out if she was at any of those places. Both of them sent out transmissions, hoping that she would hear them. Not one reply came back.

Crystal Bot too was gone. Bass was back at the lab, but he wasn't running around. He was in the lab, uncomfortable as he sent out transmissions to the shops she liked to visit. He grimaced from time to time, and only made a marginal effort into checking the computers to see if Crystal left anything on them. He did contact the space station, and they replied that neither of the girls were there. That made Wave Man teleport down and join them in the search. He cut off his transmission at the main computer with a sigh; Tim Reyes hadn't contacted her in the past twenty-four hours.

Bass really wasn't any help at all. Every time Mega Man passed him by, Forte winced, making sure to look like he was contacting someone outside the lab. Finally Rock was suspicious enough to stay. Bass knew something, he was sure of it.

"I don't understand!" Auto said as Mega Man reentered. "There's nothing wrong with security! Absolutely no reason why she should have disappeared like this!"

"No reason? I think there is one." Rock glared up at Bass, his eyes heavy with worry. "So, what were you and Crystal Bot arguing about earlier?"

Bass winced again. He didn't like being questioned by Mega Man, and his angry lip pulled back to reveal a fang. "Urg...we were arguing about you. She's still pissed I haven't blown you to bits yet."

Mega Man instantly groaned, and the slapping sound his face made when it fell into his hand echoed across the room. "Please tell me she's not taking this out on Roll."

"I doubt it. They're friends or something." Bass rubbed his eyes as if that would actually de-stress him. "You remember that plan she was nagging me about? It was for her to pretend she turned back into a villain and go work for Dr. Cain. She'd send us his plans. Ever since she found out Wily's out there somewhere she freaked out. She wants Cain to at least be out of commission before he acts up. Roll wasn't a part of the plan."

"She possibly got caught up in it...maybe..." Rock guessed. "Maybe Roll found out what she was doing."

"Or maybe Crystal Bot really is returning to evil."

All turned to see Proto Man make another of his silent entrances. Bass scowled and Rock brightened (both their instinctive reactions to the oldest robot's appearances), but Blues was entirely serious. He approached them, and Mega Man's smile was entirely erased by Proto Man's dark aura. However, Blues addressed Bass first.

"Was Rock the only subject you were arguing about?" he asked. "Remember, at no time did Crystal Bot choose to become a good person. When everyone left Wily, she just did as you told her. If Crystal is angry with you, she might have decided that she was going to do things her own way."

Proto Man's were no less intense for being behind a visor. It would have been much more useful for Bass and his lack of facial self-control. Everyone could see doubt in his expression, and Bass could hardly hide his embarassment. Before he could muster out some reluctant answer he was interrupted.

"Not possible!" Wave Man objected, pointing his harpoon in accusation. "Crystal is a part of Team 5 and she would not act on this plan without my approval!"

"Would she?" Proto Man asked. "Quite obviously she has acted, and seeing as she didn't even bother to ask you it only becomes more likely that her intentions are serious. And if Roll wasn't a part of the plan-" here Blues turned back to Bass, recieving only a glare as he continued. "-then obviously the plan has changed, and not for the better. Moreover, I also found this."

Proto Man walked up to his brother, unfolding his hand as he revealed a little device in his palm. Mega Man gasped. This was the gift he had recieved from Crystal Bot the previous Christmas. It was a zip drive storage device, one that could record his status and restore it if he were reprogrammed or damaged by an enemy.

"She...she gave this to me." Mega Man looked at his brother curiously. "It's helped me out a lot."

"Perhaps. Look at this though." Proto Man pointed towards a very tiny hole in the side of the device, one hardly perceptible if you weren't looking for it. "This is a device that transmits a very narrow beam. I've seen its kind before, and I can guess that what Crystal Bot wanted to do with it is see your programming to be able to find weaknesses or steal your advances. Whatever she's doing, she' s clearly been thinking about it for months."

"I...I think he's right..." Auto piped up. "When I was looking through Cut Man's head, I saw that she already was searching through it. She found a short memory segment where Wily tells Cut Man she would have become the next Dr. Wily if she had stayed with him."

That silenced the room. Bass was right out horrified, his face drawn out in disgust at the very idea. It was hard for him to imagine anyone wanting to be like Wily. Mega Man was equally horrified, and it seemed he might cry or just be confused. Wave Man's face was mostly covered by his armor, so he had only his eyes to show his disappointment, his eyes sinking.

"This is disturbing news." he said. "Crystal has always been very obedient to my authority over Team 5, and it disheartens me that she would throw that away so easily. From this point I can't predict what she will do next."

"Crystal does whatever she can to get what she wants." Bass muttered. "Expect something big and shiny. Look, all of this might just be coincidence. Of course Crystal Bot would want to know what she can about Wily and she might want to know about Rock. In the end she's going to get what she wants and then just to try to impress me when she comes back."

"Can you be sure about that?" Mega Man marched up to him with determination, staring him straight in the eye. "Do you really know her that well?"

Being stared at by Mega Man wasn't exactly comfortable for Bass. He gritted his teeth and pulled back as Mega Man stormed up to him with his clear determination. The blue bomber didn't expect an answer. He shook his head at the dark robot, recieving his answer through the latter's uncertainty. Mega Man turned to the others.

"Okay." he said, trying to calm himself with a breath (which seemed to work just fine even for a robot). "Now we figure things out from here. I'm sorry, Wave Man, but we're going to have to go under the assumption that Crystal Bot isn't working on some sort of plan and she has returned to evil. It's really our only choice right now. Try to see if any of your team can find her and guess her next move. Bass, I'll let you report this to Reyes. I assume that one of you knows a way to trace her. Auto, inspect everything she's done in the lab since she's been here. And Proto Man." Mega Man nodded with confidence at his brother, the only one he really had any serious confidence in at that point, including himself. "You know what to do."

Part of Blues hated that his brother put so much of his trust into him. Part of him was so afraid that Mega Man would find out the truth that he at once wanted to flee and not let his brother find out how different the older sibling truly was. That part was very, very small. Proto Man's smile was genuine, even a bit larger than his usual stingy upward lip curve. Even this small display of brotherly affection was enough to calm Mega Man down, and the bunching of his forehead relaxed. Proto Man's task was complete, and he disappeared upward in a red teleport beam.

"You know," Wave Man broke the silence. "Someone's going to have to tell Jewel Man."

"Not it." Bass' voice piped out.

Mega Man facepalmed.

-t-

Much time had passed. Time passed without consciousness for Crystal Bot, and in a complete blink. All awareness vanished instantly at the decrepit Skull Castle number 6, and the hours spent inside a cramped 18 wheeler with several other robots went by unnoticed. Neither could she recall the submarine ride or being carried into a dark, dank cave. Only her reactivation brought her back into the real world, and she waked to see a very cold and stern face looking at her.

Dr. Cain's lip pulled up a bit in either disgust or doubt, but whichever it was made Crystal shudder, even despite her best efforts to grin and be cheerful. In any case, he let her up from the repair table he was working with. It was some cheap repair table, the kind that lay flat or adjusted to a 45 degree angle, but nothing else. Sonata didn't expect it to be too much, as the mad scientist did have to work from scratch. What she didn't expect was that the rest of the room would be so much better equipped. The room was about octagonal-ish, round-ish shaped, not very specific to either because it's difficult to shape such rocky cave walls. And yet somehow somebody had installed two rings of computers, one above the other, inside the interior wall of the cave like strips of wall paper. This was only interrupted by two heavy, steel doors, one straight ahead and the other to Crystal Bot's right.

To the left was Roll, laying on the only other repair table. She wasn't activated, and as peaceful as she lay there, it frightened Crystal Bot to see her. She did nothing but look. The room was bright and cheery with the powerful light, but Dr. Cain himself was hardly either. His hair was ruffled, and he scratched his neck as he yawned.

"Bah, I'm tired." he spoke, but not to Crystal. "I've been up too late working on security measures, but at last I think that this girl will not kill us all."

"That's good." Epic Man said, his voice revealing his location to be directly behind Crystal Bot. She jumped as he continued. "I rather like being alive, myself. As alive as a robot can be, in any case. What exactly are we going to do with her?"

Cain didn't directly answer. He just stared with disdain at the girl-bot descending from the repair table, showing his impatient and exhaustion in his wrinkling brow. "So, miss 'Sinistra'. What is your directive?"

"To obey Dr. Nikola Cain!" she replied with all the merry chirpyness she could. "My new master!"

"Name subdirective A1."

"To defend Dr. Cain with my life!"

"Subdirective A2."

"To hack into Zero and get out all his secrets so that he can be Dr. Cain's servant too!"

"Subdirective B1."

"Hack into Roll-chan and infiltrate the security at Light Laboratories!"

"Subdirective B2."

"Subdue Dr. Wily and kill all his robots that aren't on our side."

"Good. She works. I'm a genius." Cain yawned again. "Get to work on subdirective A2 while I'm asleep. I expect to see progress when I wake up."

"_Ye, sansaengnim_!" The girl-bot giggled and twirled. "So where's Zero now?"

"First of all, keep it english. I'm in no mood for silliness. I've got a date with my new comfy bed and I expect to be asleep for no less than eight hours." The grumpy doctor rubbed his eyes, gesturing at the forward door. "Epic Man, show her the way there and make sure that one of us is with her at all times. I'm a genius but I'm not going to rely on my mind when it's tired."

"Yes, master." Epic Man, surprisingly, approached Crystal Bot with a calm, almost kind demeanor. "Come along now, sweetheart. Let's not aggravate the master."

His left claw pulled her away through the door, silently ushering her out with all the urgency of an older brother getting the younger child out of sight of an alcoholic father. He maintained this stiff and quietly hurried posture until the very instant the steel door closed behind him. Relaxing then, Epic Man go of Crystal Bot's arm. His demeanor immediately warmed, and he bowed with extravagant mannerisms - and a delightful twirl of his claw - as he gestured down the cave hall.

"Right this way."

"Hee, hee!" Crystal Bot giggled, doing her own curtsy. "So polite!"

He led her down the hall. Like the cave room they were in, two lines of computers decorated the place like strips of wallpaper, looking far too modern for the rocky innards of the cave (which were actually a very nice shade of brown - artificial?). Crystal Bot stared at all of it, enjoying the glowing lights in the walls and the happy echoes of her feet against the completely smooth rock floor. Even better, one wall on the hallway disappeared completely, leaving the right side open to a beautiful view of the ocean. A rock railing prevented anyone from just walking over the edge of the cliff, while still allowing a view of the ocean bay.

"Wow..." she gasped. "Where is this place?"

"It's farther north up the shore of California." Epic Man answered, joining her to lean across the railing. "Nearer toward Southerland. This is his underground fortress, and aside from a few secret exits, this opening and another under the waterfall down to the right there are the only openings to the outside world. Apparently the master had it built here some years ago into the side of this cliff, and it's indetectible to sattelites, as well as being almost impossible to enter unauthorized. I'm not really sure what this was for, though. A bunch of mechaniloids hollowed it out before I was created."

"It's really nice." Crystal Bot stared down at the water. It was very hypnotizing to her, especially for something that wasn't shiny. "But um, what's gonna happen to Roll?"

"You're caring about her now? You're the one that brought her to the master."

"Well, yeah, but I was kinda hoping she'd be more like my evil villain sister...y'know, we'd be all evil, cute and stuff and scare people. It would be fun!"

Epic Man laughed with delight. It was easy to laugh that way in the sun. "How precious! Adorable! And so unfortunate. Oh no, get all those notions out of your head at once. She'll be used to get into Light Laboratories. I suspect they'll make her shut down security, and possibly make her explode if someone tries to work on her. Ha, that's so ineloquent, isn't it?"

"Not at all, explosions are nice." Crystal Bot desperately wanted to throw something in the water, but for the moment she controlled herself and looked away from the sea and to the person she addressed. "I don't think she would explode very well. Not really pretty at all. You need some stuff that like burns different colors. I think cadmium is supposed to be really cool when you burn it, so that when the lab explodes it's all blue and stuff. There's a way to be evil and be artistic at the same time. It's more fun being a bad guy if you make it really unique."

"Ah, a connisseur, I see." Epic Man's grin was merry, but with its width and the sharpness of his teeth, the joyfulness of it was rather tainted. "I'm beginning to like having you around. I must object to your assumption of evil, though. To ask the master, he would say that we are on a mission of utmost importance to the human race. We must make humans distrust us so that they can get on with their lives and work harder."

"I know all that." she scoffed. "He can talk all he wants about motives, but his methods are _totally_ evil. I mean, taking over other people's property and causing millions of dollars worth of damage isn't nice. Proto Man said he even had this one sushi-robot chasing people in January. Wow...has it been so long? It feels like forever since then."

"Not to me it doesn't."

This new voice was the relaxed and yet sinister voice of Algorhythm Man, fully restored and blinking merrily. He went over to lean on the railing on the other side of Crystal Bot. She looked at him curiously, but he was eager to voice his opinion without any encouragement.

"I don't think we're _that_ evil." Algorhythm Man said. "Perhaps a bit inconsiderate, but we're not in the business of killing people, especially if we don't have to. It's only robots that suffer."

"Robots aren't people." Epic Man agreed with a shrug. "We're just tools for whatever the humans want."

"I think we're like substitute people." Crystal Bot tugged a bit at her hair. "We're there to be nice to people when no one else is. Rock and Roll and Proto Man were all made to be like Dr. Light's kids. They're even based on his dead wife."

"Now that is creepy." Algorhythm Man said. "Humans should just have regular children."

"She's right about the substitute people, though. Every time there's a dangerous situation, humans _substitute_ robots for themselves!"

"Quite right, Epi."

"Isn't it, though?"

"Um," Crystal piped up. "Shouldn't I be getting to work on Zero now? Dr. Cain will get mad if I slack."

"No rush at all, dear." Epic Man relaxed on the railing. "Give it a few more minutes. After all, Master will be asleep for some time, and it wouldn't do to be too quick about getting that girly-bot ready for him. It would be terrible if he awoke and suddenly found that you had not only hacked all the way through Zero's security programming, but also installed a remote control and was walking him about like a toy. It would be such an insult to his intelligence."

"Oh! That's such a great idea!" Crystal Bot giggled with glee at the very though, imagining herself sending Zero to Monstropolis and playing him as though he were a video game. "But I don't know that I can do that. I haven't even seen what kind of security he has. And besides, even if I do hack Zero really well, it's only because I know how Dr. Wily programs his robots."

"He's bound not to take it that way." Epic Man said. "You never know when he might get annoyed that a robot is outdoing him."

"Yes, give it some time." Algorhythm Man heartily agreed. "And tell me a bit more about good ol' Fish!"

Even at this irreverant reference to her old boss, Crystal Bot saddened. She sighed deeply, leaning on one arm on the railing. Thinking of Bass wasn't something she wanted to do.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you actually miss him!"

"No, of course not. He...wait, you know what? I _do _miss him. Trouble is, I missed him before I left him." Crystal Bot turned away from the ocean view, leaning her back on the railing as she folded her arms and began to explain. "Back when we were with Wily, Bass was so cool. He was smart, brave, and did all the other things none of us robots were allowed to do. He didn't even have to help build the Skull Castles. And then he changed overnight. I wake up one day and I'm suddenly in Light Laboratories, and he's Mega Man's best friend and doesn't want to fight him anymore! I built him some really nice upgrades and stuff, but he stopped caring! It was all, 'hey, let's listen to the government now' or 'Mega Man needs me to cover his patrol' or crap like that. I'm so sick of it all!"

Crystal Bot scowled and pouted, sinking deeper into a slouch. She didn't notice at first that Algorhythm Man was coming in closer. He slunk a little nearer to her, distracting her with a question.

"So you have no problem telling me all about his upgrades?"

She looked up at him, a little unnerved by his proximity. She couldn't back away from him without bumping into Epic Man, so she stiffened and hoped that he got her silent hint.

"I don't mind at all." she answered. "I know all his weaknesses and everything. He's got really strong armor that I invented, so that's something you're going to have to work around."

"You invented a new armor type?" This got Epic Man's attention. "Now this I'm interested in. I hope you're still intent on dealing with the little blue 'hero'."

"Definitely! Dr. Cain will be so happy when I tell him!"

As she spoke to Epic Man, Algorhythm Man took a step closer, almost to where their shoulders touched. Crystal Bot shivered and hoped Epic Man would say something, but he seemed lost in his own thoughts (that weird grin on his face - what was he thinking about?). Algorhythm Man converted a finger into a zip drive, much too overeager for Crystal Bot's tastes.

"So why don't you just give me Fish's schematics then?" he said. "If I only had those files-"

His hand neared Crystal Bot's neck, but from out of nowhere a white hand gripped Crystal Bot's shoulder and pulled at it. It was Frantic Man, and for an explanation he gave off a few computer blips and squeals. Dub appeared out from behind him and crawled over to Crystal Bot's feet.

"She can't understand you, Frantic Man." Epic Man said in a bored tone. "None of your little Wily-bot friends were allowed to know your speech code."

"I'm not a Wily-bot." Crystal pouted. "I'm a crystal-bot."

"Whatever."

"Where exactly did you come from then?" Algorhythm Man hissed at Frantic Man, very annoyed at the interruption.

"He's been here a couple of minutes already." Epic Man glanced over at his brother. "You shouldn't turn off your orbital scanners even in the base. Who exactly sent you here, Frantic Man? You shouldn't just slink about in the shadows."

The tacky robot answered calmly with his noises, and something he said made Epic Man laugh.

"Yes, but you're not me." Epic Man turned to Crystal Bot. "You see, it's just like I was telling you. Frantic here was sent to make you go work on Zero, and even he's reluctant to let you go off and possibly outdo the master."

"Aw...I was hoping Cain wasn't a diva..." she moaned. "Oh well, I better go do what he says. Yay! I get to work on Zero! Wily never let me work on him!"

Still in the midst of her joy, she didn't realize that the rest of the crowd wasn't up her level of bounciness. It took her a minute to see the frowns on their faces (well, the two of which that actually could frown), and see that they were a little confused. The Cain-bots glanced back and forth at each other, and Frantic Man was shaking his head.

"So...you mean to say that you've never worked on Zero?" Epic Man asked, letting his giant left claw unfurl a bit.

"Nope. Nobody's worked on him besides Dr. Wily. He didn't want one of us to get captured or something and spill the beans on important details." she said. "Don't worry though. I've done everything else with Dr. Wily, though, so I can figure it out, especially if he left some sort of trap on Zero's programming. Let's go! If there's a spare disc somewhere, I'll load up Forte's composition files to it and give that to you, Algorhythm Man."

"Ah, please do." Not even this seemed to temper his worry. "Uh, Frantic Man, why don't you go with her to Zero's room? Brother and I have a bit to discuss."

"Zzt."

The two went down the hall, leaving the open and bright area behind. Crystal Bot was mostly oblivious to whatever concern the Cain-bots seemed to have. She glanced over at Frantic Man, revealing him as the source of any nervousness she had. Biting her lip, she simply followed him through the rocky chambers, one into another. Somehow it was awkward to her that the only sounds in the room were the tappings of her feet against the floor and the humming of the line of computers in the wall.

"Um, Frantic Man?"

He turned to her, and for a split second she regretted trying to fill the quiet walk with some sort of communication. But she had started it, so she might as well say something.

"Thanks for not killing my stepdad."

Frantic Man beeped, turning back ahead again. Crystal Bot guessed that this was some equivalent of "you're welcome" or "I was only letting him be bait so that Algorhythm Man could get a chance to fight Bass". Either way, he just continued to walk forward at his steady pace, his wings folded calmly to keep them swinging too much.

"Is it fun working for Dr. Cain?" she still asked. "Um, I mean, does he yell a lot?"

Frantic Man leaned his head a bit, thinking. Finally he shook his head.

"Um, does that mean he's not fun?"

He nodded.

"Oh." Crystal bit her lip. "So...is he really mean? Does he yell at you a lot?"

"Wrrt."

Frantic Man shook his head no. He said something else in his weird language, but gave up after a moment. The walk became silent again, but before Crystal Bot could summon up the courage to ask him something else, they found themselves at a dead end. Frantic Man reached out his clown arm and poked at a rock several feet up at the end of the wall. The large boulders before them recoiled backwards, opening a new passage in much the same way Stone Man's body rearranged itself.

"Cool!" Sinistra exclaimed. "This base is awesome!"

She scrambled past the open rocks first, and as she did the lights came on, revealing a moderately large lab. The place was lighted with bright florescents, and had the sort of tile floor that brought to mind (in humans) the floors of their old high school. The left and far wall were all computer monitoring equipment, and the rest of the walls, unlike the other chambers, were instead white painted cinderblocks. The far right wall had both a whiteboard and bulletin board, as well as a plain, wooden door.

Sinistra saw none of these things. For, towards the back of the room, was the very robot that had been evading her ever since she first spied Dr. Wily's plans for him. He lay there on his repair table (the large kind) with all the solemnity of a regal warrior lying on his funeral pyre. His long blonde hair draped over the side of the table, and wherever the ventillation was coming from, it was perfectly placed to blow at the ends of his hair.

"EEEEE!" she squealed, putting all of her emotion into this act. She raised on her toes, lifted both fists to her chin, and beamed as big as she could. That was her only delay before rushing over to him, excitedly trying to figure out where to start.

"Nzzh beep...hrwph pvvt...?"

"Huh?"

Crystal Bot turned around, finding the emotionally indeterminable Frantic Man lifting his hand. He was trying to ask her something, but even with his careful gesturing, Crystal had a time trying to figure him out. He kept twisting his hand, pointing at Zero, and patting his arm as if he were holding something.

"Um...are you trying to ask if I need some supplies for hacking Zero?"

"Zzzt!"

"Yay, I got it!" she clapped her hands. "Okay, so I'm gonna need a hand held scanner, some wiring to hook him to the main computer - oh, never mind, those are over here already. Okay, I still need the hand held with a programmable hackstyle format function, an armor plating Jamie wrench, a couple of blank discs, and something to tie his hair back. I just know it's gonna get in my way. I've got a bunch of tools in my foot armor, so that should be it for now."

Frantic Man made some sort of agreeable noise before he went over to the door, which Sinistra guessed to be a supply room. She, however, paid him no more mind. This was Zero she could work on, and now no other robot existed. She was so wrapped up in selecting the tools from her armor she hardly even noticed when Dub crawled up behind her. He made a bit of a noise, then flipped upside-down. A green part of his armor suddenly popped off and turned brown. It formed itself into Bruce the pipi, completely intact and holding a zip drive in his mouth. Flying up on Crystal Bot's shoulder, Bruce landed gently and stuck the zip drive in her neck.

She stiffened, dropping her screwdriver. A full minute passed, after which she blinked and shuddered. Once her shuddering stopped, she smiled.

"Ah, thanks Bruce."

She winked at the bird, and he gave a quiet tweet as he went back to Dub and returned to being nothing more than an extra layer of armor plating. With Dub flipping right side over, there was no way for anyone to tell if anything had happened at all.

The sound of a door behind her made Crystal Bot nearly jump. She turned to see Frantic Man returning through the door. If he had seen anything, he didn't do anything about it. The wacky robot simply brought the requested materials and placed them beside Zero. Well, if he had seen anything, Crystal Bot wasn't going to be nervous and give it away.

"Thanks, Frantic Man." Crystal Bot smiled. "Let's get to work! _Yolshimhi hapshida_!"

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I actually have no idea what color cadmium is when you burn it. Neither does Crystal. She's guessing.

- I don't believe that humans would ever give up much of what they do to robots. Like flying ships or going into space. Doing either of those things is for the experience, to feel something new and to cross new boundaries. Whatever progress humans make will be entirely human in nature.

- Frantic Man was trying to tell Crystal that Dr. Cain doesn't yell at you if you do what you're told.

- _Yolshimhi hapshida _means "let's do our best!"

Character profiles!

=====Fire Man

**"I'll fire you!"**

Good point: Hot blooded

Bad point: Hot tempered

Likes: Summer camp

Dislikes: Rainy days

I friggin' love Fire Man. He's my favorite from the original game. When I would play nintendo at my grandparent's house, the theme would sound all wonky and fun. Apparently it came from using the Game Genie. I guess that's why I like techno now.

So Fire Man is a part of Team 1, invented by Dr. Light as more or less an experiment into what exactly a robot is capable of doing. Fire Man's power levels were originally not very high, as his functions mainly dealt with heating homes and repairing propane and gas based machinery. Wily increased his power substantially to make him very dangerous. Fire Man is a little simple-minded. While he's intelligent, he never really bothers to question Dr. Wily, even when Wily comes up with crazy plans that don't really work. He's very self-controlled, and isn't fond of those that question Wily's service. Before his conversion to Wily, he was much friendlier and good around kids. Now he talks less, only relaxed enough to chit chat around his own team members. He doesn't "waste words" on people "not worth his time".

Like all of Team 1, Fire Man's loyalty programs are very strong. He also has a strong dislike for Team 5. While he never went out of his way to aggravate them before they departed from Wily, Fire Man had strict expectations that they would know their place. Currently, one of Fire Man's arms is a part of Frantic Man, and the rest of him is lost.

=====Charge Man

**"Be mindful of your future, son."**

Good point: Straightforward

Bad point: Bellicose attitude

Like: Past reflections

Dislike: Trendy fashions

Charge Man is a fairly hyper robot. He enjoys older things, and at times there's nothing more fun to him than a great museum. Part of him wishes he worked on one. He doesn't like staying up in the space station very long, and from time to time has to get back on solid ground to run around and get his energy going. He's in charge of transporting supplies to Team 5, naturally.

Like most of Team 5, Charge Man is one of Wily's incomplete ideas. He was actually shortly before MM2, though he was little more than a mechaniloid until the events of MM5. Wily was enthusiastic about building him at first, but got bored of his train robot before final completion and just had him hauling around parts so that Wily could work on robots he liked better. He was upgraded with a proper mind and a coal shooter shortly after Wily escaped from Mega Man in Russia.

Charge Man was actually pretty good at dealing with the fact that nobody liked Team 5, and when not building Wily Castles he often spent time alone reading ancient Japanese legends and practicing his script. He's good friends with Napalm Man, though the two have grown apart just a little since they became good guys.


	13. Villain and Villain

Crystal Bot, or Sinistra, as she was calling herself lately, worked tirelessly at hacking and bypassing security protocols on Zero. The work was far more complex than she had expected, and hacking through him wasn't going that well. As much as she had studied the notes Auto had given her about how X level minds worked, this was just insane. Everything that Dr. Light programmed into X was twisted and contorted, made to fit into a pattern that Crystal Bot just didn't understand. So much about Zero was reworked in ways that didn't make any sense.

One thing was certain. Zero was more madly powerful than any robot Crystal had ever seen. More so than any Wily or Light number, unless X was more strong, and she'd never had the opportunity to find out. She wasn't even sure that Auto ever worked on Dr. Light's secret robot.

"Whew." Crystal Bot took a moment to lean on the table. "This is a lot harder than I thought. I mean, it's still fun, but I really hope I can actually show Dr. Cain something before he wakes up. I think I've made some headway, but I'm not entirely sure. This is just so hard!"

Frantic Man said nothing. He waited there the entire time as Crystal Bot worked on Zero. Occasionally he helped her, but most of the time he just watched her, listening to the things she said. Crystal seemed full of story, though mostly she described what she was doing. There was no need for him to respond to her, in his limited way or otherwise; she seemed happy just talking to him.

That didn't stop Crystal Bot from working. She already had most of Zero's armor off, and it lay on a pile on the floor at her feet. The handheld computer was doing the best it could to repeat the hacking patterns she programmed into it, but it just wasn't working.

"I've done all I can." Sinistra aimlessly drummed her screwdriver against Zero's arm. "It's just a matter of time before I can really get through Zero's defenses. Trouble is, I'm estimating a five-year period of continuous hacking before we can really get anywhere. And that's a hopeful estimate. I wanted to at least tell Dr. Cain something about his power core, but I'm afraid to mess with it. He's got the bassnium kind, and nobody can reproduce it. That might include Dr. Wily too. It's hard stuff for even him to mess with, and he invented it!"

"Frrrvt veep voop."

She didn't even try to guess what Frantic Man said. It was easier to pretend that it had something to do with what she was saying. "I just don't know what to do next. I mean, I might have to hook up my head to his. I've got...well, the closest kind of brain that Zero does. Trouble is, 'closest' doesn't mean 'close'. I just hope I found out enough for Dr. Cain to figure something out from here."

"Veep voop nrrrtow."

Crystal Bot turned to him with curiosity, leaning her head a bit to the side. Relaxed for the moment, she leaned back against the repair table. It wasn't as if she could do too much more to Zero, especially without a burst of inspiration. So her focus turned to the wild construct robot.

"It's kinda sad to see you." she said. "You've got Turbo Man's head, but back when he was all put together, he could talk. Let me guess. You're stuck with a mechaniloid language that only Cain-bots can understand."

"Zzzt. Veep bzzt ggggnv oop."

"Aww." she stuck out her lower lip. "That must be so horrible for you. I guess I don't blame Dr. Cain for being so cautious, but still. I don't know. Maybe if you're good he'll let you talk, at least to me. Dr. Wily never would do something like that. Dr. Wily was the nice kind of bad guy! Um, sort of. I just...I just wish he didn't kill my dad."

Crystal Bot sat down on the floor, quietly settling there. Dub walked over to her, but she directed him to go plug Zero into the main computer and begin cracking whatever code he could from there. That done, she folded her hands and slumped. Frantic Man very carefully sat next to her. This made Crystal Bot smile, but nothing more of a smile than the flicking up and down of one side of her lips.

"I used to think Wily was so wonderful. I used to think he liked me, and I was his little girl. I'd have been happy enough going on like that." Crystal Bot sighed. "If it weren't for Forte I wouldn't know anything. Then again, I'd be dead if it weren't for Forte. Things have just-" Remembering herself, she looked into Frantic Man's eyes and cut herself off. "I mean, not that I want to go back to Forte or anything. Nope! Definitely not! I just...I just want my real dad back. I want to forget all about Dr. Wily and everything bad and just see Crystal Man again. It's not fair."

Frantic Man said nothing. He lifted his head, giving off the impression he was staring into space. She wouldn't understand him anyway, so he didn't see the point in speaking. All he could do was gently pat her shoulder. Suddenly his head jerked to the side, and he beeped loudly. He began to pull at Crystal Bot's arm, gesturing back up at Zero.

"Veep voop nrrrtow!"

"You said that before. What does that mean?"

He just tugged Crystal Bot back to her feet and shoved her Jamie wrench back into her hands. Before they both knew it, the door was opening. In came Dr. Cain, followed along by Epic Man and Demi. The scientist looked much more put together than before, and his hair was still slightly wet from a shower. Evidently he felt better, as everything he did had a renewed sense of energy. That included his critical glare.

"Alright, report." he ordered Crystal. "What have you discovered here?"

"Wow, I didn't realize I was working that long." Sinistra pulled up the handheld computer, it's cord still plugged into Zero's neck. "Here's as far as I got. Sorry it's not more, it's just that this guy is really encoded. Oh hey, Epic Man. Hand this over to Algorhythm Man." Lying on the table were the discs Frantic Man had brought her. She shuffled a couple of them aside, picking it up and handing it over to the midnight blue robot. "These are Forte's schematics. They'll be handy in helping him win in a fight."

Epic Man took the disc, but Dr. Cain gave him a suspicious look. Answering him without words, Epic Man shrugged and stuck the disc under his armor. Cain's flitting eyes went back to the girl, and he disdainfully took the handheld computer and gave it a glance. Perusing it, he gave a grunt.

"So...this is all you did, or all you're willing to do?"

"I don't understand." she put down her wrench back on the table. "You worked on Zero yourself, I'm sure. It's not exactly easy to do."

Cain said nothing, but there was judgementalism all over his face. Was he expecting Crystal to do more? She nervously backed away from him, being careful not to go too far and make it too obvious that she was afraid. He passed Crystal Bot by to get a look with what she'd done to Zero's armor, and she pulled back further. Crystal Bot wasn't sure if Cain understood what he saw. Tugging at her fingers, she winced as Dr. Cain's glance seemed to disapprove of every little thing she'd done.

"Ah, don't reach too closely for that power core settings panel." she cautioned, nervous to contradict his inspection. "It's not good to mess around with the power core. It's filled with a bunch of nasty radiation. Fortenium is bad stuff."

"I knew that already." he huffed, and from his appearance you would never guess he was lying. "Now is there anything you can show me on here that I don't know?"

"Um, I got into some initializing coding in his head." she pointed to a button on the hand held. "You can see it there. I think it's coming along nicely. I just have to figure out how to get further without setting off the crippling code security functions in Zero's head. I can connect myself to him-"

"No, none of that." the master answered sharply, glaring down at Crystal. He put down the little computer and folded his arms. "And now, I want you to tell me all about . I couldn't help but notice that it's the opposite of your name 'Sinistra'. More people than just you know about the technical terms surrounding music. So why exactly does Roll have a program signifying the right hand and you're the left?"

"Um, well," Crystal Bot blushed. She held her hands behind her and put on her most adorable face - it was one specially crafted to charm humans. "I wanted to wait until the right time to ask you this, but you went to bed really quick earlier. I was kinda hoping that you would make her my evil villain sister, and we would be bad guys and blow up stuff, and rule the world-"

A loud groan from the scientist, as well as a subsequent facepalm, interrupted her request. Epic Man laughed. Demi did this same, rocking back and forth on the floor with his rusty, creaky laugh. Merriment for him was a full body workout.

"Ha ha!" Demi squealed. "Aw, what a crackup!"

"She mentioned this to me and Al before she was brought here." Epic Man told his master. "I think she means it."

"I couldn't possibly care if she does or not." Cain focused sternly on the girl-bot. "One, _humans_ should rule the world, not robots, and secondly, you will now explain why exactly this program is interfering with my ability to hack into Roll and discover how to take over Light Laboratories."

_Stupid Roll!_ Crystal wanted very much to stomp her foot and pout, but she had no other choice but to stick out her lip in the most adorable manner she could and pretend to be confused. "Um, I don't know. It's not supposed to do something like that. It's just supposed to block out her artificial personality so she won't act like a goody-goody, not block her memory. I'm not always good at A.I. though. Don't worry. I can fix it. I guess I'll just have to delete the program entirely."

"You'll do that." Dr. Cain nodded firmly. "I'll send you to her later, and I expect her to be following my every orders very soon. For now, tell me more about this 'fortenium'."

"Well, it's either called that or bassnium." she explained, pointing over to the core. "Because it's named after Bass and Wily invented it while he was building Bass. It's pretty dangerous stuff and cost prohibitive. I'm not sure if it's useful to your purposes."

"It's not. I want it destroyed." the scientist huffed. "Now, who knows how to make it?"

"Besides Wily himself, nobody. He even made it by accident and I'm not sure if he has the equipment or money to make any more. If he could make as much as he wanted, he would have made the later robot master teams with it."

"Good. How likely is Wily to teach someone this before he dies?"

Crystal Bot tried not to shudder at the mention of death. "Um, there's really no reason why he would. He doesn't have any kids and he doesn't tell anything too important to his robots. I think he'd rather just...um, pass away without telling anyone and let the world remember him as a genius. I know some about it from working on Bass, but this particular power core processor itself is something I could only understand after examining this one here for a long time. Bassnium itself I'm not sure I ever could."

"Even better." Dr. Cain's voice took on a tone that actually sounded a little happy. "So, all I have to do is destroy Zero, kill Bass, and get rid of Wily then this knowledge will disappear.

Epic Man made sure that Dr. Cain didn't look and see his wince. He sort of liked Crystal Bot, and even if she didn't get the implication, Epic Man was all too familiar with Dr. Cain's ways. He hoped for her sake that all Dr. Cain would do was delete any details about bassnium Crystal Bot had in her head rather than resort to more extreme measures.

"What do you know about his mind?" Dr. Cain asked the girl-bot. "What makes him different from ordinary robots?"

"I didn't get to work on him before," Crystal Bot explained. "But he's based on the same sort of CPU I am, other than him having a single mind rather than three. My father stole some technology from Dr. Light to build me, and then Dr. Wily found it and made it even better because he understood it more than Crystal Man. From what I can tell by the hardware involved, he's got a...well, really, really complex multiprocessor going on. He's got more gigs of memory than your average robotics lab, and I can only imagine how fast he must run with all that RAM involved. This guy could run an entire base just on what he's got in his head. But don't worry, I can hack into it. _Gwenchannulkoheyo_!"

Epic Man winced, and his dastardly face showed genuine pity for Crystal Bot before it was covered by his dramatic facepalm. There was no pity in Nikola's eyes, however, and he even bared his teeth a little.

"What?" Demi looked up at his master and his comrade. "I don't get it."

"I seem to recall giving you the order to speak only in english." Cain threatened the girl-bot. "So what exactly enabled you to break my orders? Epic Man!"

The blue robot was behind her in a flash, snatching her up by the arms with a force she knew she couldn't resist. The pitiful whimper she gave out amused Epic Man, but it did nothing to engender any sympathy from Dr. Cain. Without even being ordered, Frantic Man grabbed Dub and deactivated him.

"So apparently you can escape my control somehow." Cain said. "It doesn't matter. You've done well enough. So you've got the same technological basis as Zero's CPU? Good. That means taking your mind apart will tell me more about him than leaving you active would."

"Please don't! I'm really loyal!' Crystal Bot insisted. "Um...it's just sometimes minor orders reset in my head after a while, and korean-"

"Oh, shut up. If you weren't a part of building Zero then you're no good activated." Dr. Cain was through speaking to her. "Demi, you check Zero and make sure she hasn't encoded him more. I just hope it's not too late-"

_" - Dr. Cain! - " _Algorhythm Man's frantic voice came in a transmission. _" - I'm recieving an enemy proximity alert! There's a band of opposition on the cliffside above us. - "_

"It's fine for now." Cain hissed. "We've got great security and worst come to worst it will be easy enough to escape without them reaching us."

"Aaaah! Frantic Man, you horrible slacker!" Demi screamed, banging his paws on the wall computer. "Didn't you check this computer? She's been using Zero as a cover for sending out a signal to outsiders!"

"Wait, wouldn't we notice something like that straight away on our main computer?" Epic Man looked down at his captive. "My dear, we certainly have underestimated you. Pity we have to kill you now."

"Crap! Shut it down!" Cain hissed.

"It's already gone! I'm engaging the sensor block now!"

_" - Um, Master? - " _It was Algorhythm Man again. _" - We're recieving a transmission... - "_

_" - I'll be there in a second! - "_ The master swung an indomitable finger over at Epic Man. "Bring her along to the main lab. I'm sure she's got everything to do with this. Let's go!"

Epic Man was not a slow walker, and Crystal Bot found herself struggling to keep up with his mad pace to the main lab, even being half dragged along the way. Faster than both was Dr. Cain, and he charged right through those stone halls with a frightening aura of fury - it was as if getting too close to him would set you on fire. Crystal Bot was torn between trying to maintain the pace and trying to keep well away from the doctor. It wasn't much use; Epic Man's grip was too much.

The main lab was essentially a command center, and entering it, Crystal Bot couldn't help but feel that she was on an episode of Star Trek. The round room was decked out with various computer systems, each commandeerable from the chairs before them. The center of the room was a wide, circular platform, one built of stone. Part of this platform was cut out to form steps to the top, leaving a round, stage-like area. The domed roof above them held some sort of metal circle in the ceiling, a circle panel with metal claws holding it like roots into the rock. There wasn't much time to notice all of this as Crystal Bot was shoved onto the center platform, right behind Dr. Cain.

"Epic Man," he thundered. "Hand her to Frantic and go to the main weapons station. See if you can get the intruders on our targeting screen."

Not waiting for Epic Man to act, Frantic Man (he had been following the whole time?) tossed a deactivated Dub by Dr. Cain's feet and went to snatch up Crystal, firmly holding her and letting Epic Man do as he was told.

"Alright, put the message on screen." Dr. Cain flung a hand at the left front station, where Algorhythm Man sat.

One large side of the domed roof suddenly lit up. No one who saw the barren rock wall would have guessed that it was indeed a viewscreen. Crystal Bot brightened. Surely the transmission was from one of her former friends. More than likely it was Mega Man, but even seeing his dopey face would be encouraging, because being captured by good guys was still better than being killed.

But Mega Man's wasn't the face that appeared on the viewscreen that blinked into life. Dr. Wily, his face large and wrinkled on the height of the screen, appeared on the viewscreen instead. From the technology and glowing lights around him, Crystal guessed that he was inside the Skull Capsule. That was the single rational thought that remained in her head, as everything else fled in fear.

Dr. Cain didn't wait for Wily to speak. He grinned menaically, trying to force his face to show that he was in control. "Good afternoon, Dr. Wily. As you can see here, I've caught your little spy!"

"It is a good afternoon." Wily's eyes flitted over to Crystal Bot only momentarily, and he showed only the mildest surprise. "Really, Cain, if you didn't want me to find out where you are, you shouldn't have answered my transmission."

"You don't know _where_ I am." Cain huffed. "I'll give you credit for escaping prison, but I'm afraid this is as far as you will go. You don't even know what sort of defenses I have here. At any point in time I could decimate you if you tried."

"Right, and that's why you're sweating right now." Wily grinned, his wrinkled smile and shiny eyes ready for a nice, defiant laugh. Wily restrained himself, though. Proper evil laughs required perfect timing. "Heh. So maybe we can talk. After all, you are _so frightening_ that I can't help but wish to negotiate. Look, I'm a nice person. As I said in prison, I can help you with your aims. I don't suppose you have a plan to deal with how exactly you're going to live after you, ahem, destroy all the world's robots. Won't everyone try to kill you? I don't suppose you know how you're going to handle that."

"You managed to survive all your schemes." Cain retorted. "Or is it because all your schemes have failed and people have made good economics of it? You by yourself did wonders for the Anti-Robotic Shielding Company. Let's make one thing clear. I'm the one in charge here. I decide how this thing turns out. After all, I found your little robot. Your..._Zero_. I'll gladly destroy him. After all, he's just a robot. Enough C-4, and he'll be rubble."

That got a change in Wily's tone. His smile froze on his face, and once he realized he was staring in stunned shock, he let his face melt down into anger. Each bit of skin went pale and slumped, and his eyes narrowed. Crystal shuddered. That was definitely a bad face. She automatically tried to pull away and get out of range of that horrid expression, but Frantic Man held her still.

Dr. Cain, however, didn't realize exactly how much trouble he was in, and he went quite happily on.

"And as for my plans to destroy the robots of the world - it's quite eloquent you know - I think I'll start with her!" Cain snatched her chin and held her up for Wily to see. "Your sweet little spy! She had me almost fooled with her little story about you. A perfect diversion. I know you, Dr. Wily, sentimental fool! You can't stand one of your poor robots being destroyed."

Crystal tugged her chin out of his hand, sullenly forcing her gaze to the floor. Cain didn't know Dr. Wily at all. Zero he cared about for his purposes, but the others were in his good graces only as long as they did what he said. He might care about most of them as each a different breakthrough and a different power he had invented, but there could be no way he would ever forgive her. She didn't kill Mega Man when she had the chance, and she and her team had betrayed him. Crystal Bot didn't bother whimpering. She just stared at the floor, wishing that the last thing she would ever see wouldn't be the inside of a dark cave.

"No, wait, stop!" Wily hissed. "Fine. Don't hurt her! What is it that you want?"

Crystal's head went up, daring to look at her former master. Her eyes went reluctantly to his face on the viewscreen and she saw him looking almost as reluctantly back at her. Only for a moment, though. He still had to maintain face in front of Dr. Cain. Any sensitivity he had vanished in a grumpy frown at the competing scientist.

"Ha, now that's more like it!" Cain's grin was entirely cheshire. "I'm going to need to you fufill my plans by gathering together the rest of your robots. I do hope Shadow Man is alive, because I'll need him to sneak into the Robotics Ethics Agency. You will also reprogram Zero so that I can understand him. After my plans are complete, all your robots should be disassembled."

"What? Are you crazy?" Wily smacked his hand into control panel, producing a violent sound. "As if the least of my robots couldn't pound yours into the ground!"

"Even Toad Man?"

"_I _didn't build _him_, you idiot!"

"Hm, too bad." Dr. Cain merrily folded his arms. "That doesn't sound very respectful. Frantic Man, kill her."

Any one of his powers could do so. Morbidly, Crystal ran through all of the methods in an instant, horrified as she imagined herself being burnt to death by his Fire Man power or electrocuted by Clown Man's. Something seemed to be wrong though. Frantic Man was shaking, glitching. Were his different components not working right together? They way he was slapped together, she guessed it was very likely.

"What are you doing?" Dr. Cain snapped. "Break her neck!"

The Clown Man hand lifted up and reached over to obey, grabbing the side of her head with a very shaky hand.

"Aha!" Wily said, grinning. He flung a tough finger at the screen. "Stop!"

Instantly Frantic Man's arm dropped, and he stood there stiff. His eyes glowed, but he did nothing more than this, just standing there unable to move. Wily laughed one of his classic laughs, wiggling his eyebrows for emphasis.

"Not so great a programmer as you thought, huh, Nikola?" Wily couldn't stop laughing. "Even if you take over my robots, I can still make them stop. You, there, whoever you are, reset 297!"

At once the strange robot blinked, looking around as his mind shifted itself into its regular obedience to Dr. Wily. However, if Crystal Bot thought they was going to get away, that thought was quickly dispelled by the upward swing of a plasma gun Cain held. He glared at her angrily as he aimed his weapon, but his words were meant with equal ferocity at Dr. Wily.

"That doesn't keep me from just shooting her or Frantic Man, idiot." Cain snapped.

The distraction that saved Crystal's life was the disappearance of the viewscreen. It was once again a wall of rock without any sign of ulterior technology. Before this change could really register in anyone's minds, the large metal circle above them turned and set to the side, coming closer as it opened up the top of the laboratory. Before Dr. Cain could say as much as a word, his plasma gun flew out of his hand, sliced clean through by a shadow blade. Team 2 robot masters fell from the top entrance, quickly surrounding and overwhelming Signal Man, Epic Man, and Algorhythm Man. Frantic Man gently pushed Crystal Bot aside with his clown arm as the rest of him went to guard Cain.

Once these defensive measures were taken, everyone's attention went to the dramatic figure of none other than Dr. Albert A. Wily as the metal door, doubling as an elevator, carefully circled around and lowered the mad scientist to the floor. His confident posture and stylish cane only made him more the glorious figure (his walking was fine - the cane was just for looks). Even his wild grey hair was combed out to look bigger than before, and as the metal panel finally brought him down to everyone else's level, he was more intimidating than anyone had ever seen him before. He stepped down off the panel with a kingly swagger.

"Yeah!" Crash Man cheered from his position guarding Algorhythm Man. "That's our doctor!"

The other robots joined in, and Dr. Wily gleefully approached his would-be competitor, who at this point didn't know if he wanted to be afraid or if he was going to fly into a rage. Either way, Dr. Cain was entirely red, and only Shadow Man standing behind him kept him from acting on either of his impulses.

"If you didn't want to let me in side your base," Dr. Wily said. "Then you shouldn't have answered my transmission. But anyway, since you so cordially let me in, why don't you show me around? I would love a tour! My robots feel just the same way, don't you?"

Wily lifted his arms like a grand circus master as he addressed his minions, and their cheers rose again. Epic Man glared at his master, silently demanding that he do something. Dr. Cain, however, was definitely afraid, and there was nothing for Epic Man to do but sigh and let his depression be completely ignored by the jolly enemies around him. He glanced over at his brothers, and neither Algorhythm or Signal Man seemed hurt. Epic Man wasn't entirely sure how he would get past Quick Man and Heat Man to help them anyway.

"So!" Wily rubbed his hands together once his jolly minions calmed down. "I am now in charge of things. You will now command your robots to obey me. Or I can let Shadow Man kill you. I'm fine either way, but it would save me a lot of programming if you would just cooperate."

"Fine. Robots, listen to Wily." Cain snapped, falling into one of those adult pouts - the kind that pretends to have the moral superiority even though they don't have the ability to do anything about it. "I should have got human minions..."

"Very good. Now let's get going. I want you to show me exactly what firepower this base has first, and then we'll discuss exactly what I need you to program."

"I have all the plans in my office." Cain huffed. "It's just this room to the back here-"

"Quick Man." Dr. Wily looked over at his fastest robot, directing him with a nod of the head. "Go inspect this office of his and make sure it's not trapped. Wood Man, you too."

"Sure, boss." Quick Man patted Epic on the shoulder. "Hey, I've seen some of your fights on the news, and you're not so bad. Now that we're allies, why don't we race later?"

The red and yellow robot didn't wait for an answer. He had to go run off and obey. Frantic Man was moderately gentle about getting Dr. Cain down from the platform, but from then on the human was in Quick Man's discretion. Quick Man snatched an arm, disappearing with a very grumpy Dr. Cain behind a door in the back. Cain tried to shut it, but Quick Man simply pushed the doctor aside, sending him flying into something that from the sounds of metal and crashing, seasoned by several disgusting swears, it was far less than comfortable. Quick Man ignored whatever damage this may have done to Dr. Cain and just made sure the door stayed open, holding it in mock manners for Wood Man.

"After you, miss."

"Shut up, idiot." Wood Man rolled his eyes and gave Quick Man a prompt punch in the shoulder.

"Hey!" Algorhythm Man hissed, causing Metal Man to promptly grab his arms and Crash Man to aim bombs at his face. "Don't you hurt Dr. Cain, you wretched creature!"

"Oh, shut up. I'm not going to kill him." Dr. Wily rolled his eyes. "I need him for my plans, and if he is a good boy, then he will survive. You show Metal Man everything about that control panel. Don't get any ideas, because I don't need _you_. And while we wait to make sure they don't do anything stupid, I think I'll deal with my little spy."

Dr. Wily stepped onto the circular platform, and Crystal Bot began to shudder. It had been months since she had last seen Dr. Wily, and that last meeting consisted of being screamed at and sentenced to reprogramming for betraying him. It had been a long time since, but every fearful second of that horrid day filled the terrified girl's memory as Wily's wrinkled face came ever nearer. He didn't seem angry, but he wasn't smiling. All that showed on his his face was curiosity and a mild suspicion.

"So, you're _my _spy are you?" Dr. Wily said. "Or was your transmission part of the plan for the worst mistake I ever bothered creating and his naiive blue friend?"

"Nuh-uh." Crystal Bot trembled, regressing into shyness. "I was...I mean..."

Crystal Bot stopped and tried to clear her head. She had to focus. Her life was at stake here. Steeling herself and forcing her head up, she continued with resolution.

"I left Forte. He was getting mean. He never let me do what I want, and he never let me blow stuff up, and he makes me do what the government says! Worst of all, he says he's not gonna fight Mega Man anymore even though I did everything in my power to make him stronger and better. I hate Mega Man! He ruined my life!"

"Yes." The girl-bot was really disliking the way Dr. Wily just pushed her to talk, using just that voice that sounds like he was a wise father and she was nothing more than a little three year-old. "And what was your plan here?"

"I was gonna make you take me back." Crystal Bot backed away a step, shyly rubbing her hands. "I was gonna show you how to find Dr. Cain's base and help you fix everything I did wrong. I'm so sorry I betrayed you! I should have just killed Mega Man when I had the chance, and then you could do whatever you wanted. I tried to pretend to be a good girl with I was with Forte, but I'm a natural villain. I...I got to look at Cut Man's memories."

Here, Crystal Bot found that she couldn't look Dr. Wily in the eye, and her gaze settled down to the ground. "I saw the part where you said I was gonna be the next Dr. Wily. I...I wanna do that! So that's why I stole Roll and tricked Dr. Cain. I was going to reprogram Roll, and she was gonna be Destra, and I would be Sinistra, and we'd be evil villain sisters and blow stuff up and rule the world, and...and..."

When she looked back up again, she found that Dr. Wily was smiling. It was an evil grin, sure, but it definitely signalled his approval. He laughed heartily, throwing an arm around the crystal girl-bot's arm.

"That's so precious." Wily laughed. "You and Roll ruling the world? Ha, why not? How sweet! And just imagine how angry Mega Man would be! Hahaha! You're right, you are a natural villain. So the little Light-bot is here now? Very good! Flash Man, go take Epic and have him bring Roll to me, if Cain hasn't messed up her head already."

Crystal Bot didn't share his joy. Instead, with an amount of daring that even surprised her, Crystal Bot pulled herself out of his grip and turned away. Dr. Wily winced a bit, more grumpy than otherwise. He knew exactly what was going on. Wily stepped toward her.

"I'm sorry about Crystal Man." he said, quietly so that the other robots wouldn't hear. "That was a mistake."

"Really?" Crystal Bot faced him again. "You...you mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it." Dr. Wily said with a bit of a grumble. Admitting he was wrong was never something he could be comfortable with. "If I let Crystal Man keep working for me, he probably would have done even more good than building you. After all, it's because of him that I know about Mega Man X."

"Then I'm sorry I left you and didn't kill Rock." Crystal Bot said. "That was the worst mistake I ever made! I wanna stay with you again and take care of you. You're not getting any younger, you know. Ooh! Now that we've got Roll, she'll help too! Oh please say that she can be my evil villain sister and we can blow stuff up! Please!"

Dr. Wily laughed heartily at the pleading girl-bot, giving her a good slap on the back. "Now that's my girl! Of course you can. So you've been in Mega Man's laboratory a lot by now, haven't you?"

"Yep! Sure have!" Crystal Bot giggled and clapped her hands. "They changed the codes by now I'm sure, but I can get you some security descriptions and stuff so that we can get in with bombs or something. Let's do it soon! I wanna blow it up!"

"Ha ha, yes, yes, muahahaha!" Dr. Wily just couldn't stop laughing. "Ah, now I remember how much I've missed you, sweetheart."

Crystal Bot smiled up at him. She too remembered all the good times she had with him, stealing and attacking unsuspecting peoples. It was nice. Her little flashback was interrupted by Frantic Man. He was staring at them, and Crystal Bot could have sworn that the normal glow of his eyes faded just a little.

"Wrrrt. Nrr...tweep twonk zz-beep. Nrr-veep-voop beep."

"Eh...what was that?" Wily faced the wacky robot. "What was that supposed to mean?"

"Frantic Man said there's still some of Dr. Cain's failsafes to deal with." Algorhythm Man called out, getting up from his chair. "He doesn't speak english, but he can understand everything you say."

"I'll have to fix that." Dr. Wily rubbed his chin in thought. "Bah. Later. You...Frantic Man, I guess, go and deal with whatever you were talking about and report to me when you're done. Metal Man, you have access to the computer, yes?"

"Al here deactivated the passwords." The deep, gritty voice of the blade robot answered as he took Algorhythm Man's seat. "We've got full access to all files and weapons systems."

"Excellent. Quick Man!"

The red and yellow robot popped his head out of the office door. "All clear here. I had to relieve Mr. Cain of a few guns, but it's taken care off. No traps or anything."

"Wonderful!" Dr. Wily seemed very much amused with himself. "Metal Man, you look for anything relevant on their computer and report to me after I have a little conference with Cain. Heat Man and Bubble, you two _find Zero_ and bring him back here. Don't return without him."

Dr. Wily's voice darkened with threat as he spoke of Zero, and Crystal Bot found herself shivering. She spoke up nonetheless, twisting her auburn hair.

"Um, they've got him behind a secret panel down the long north hall. I can go with them if you want." Crystal Bot paused a moment to bite her lip. "Um, I was working on Zero some, because I had to pretend to be hacking him for Dr. Cain. Dr. Cain tried himself, but he didn't get very far. I don't think he knows anything about Zero."

"You hacked into Zero because you were told to," Dr. Wily lifted an eyebrow. "Or because you were curious?"

Crystal Bot would have blushed if she had the ability. "Um, the second one."

"Ha, that's fine. You didn't tell Cain anything, right?"

"Nah, I didn't get that far anyway." she smiled. It was good to know that Dr. Wily wasn't mad at her. "And I woulda lied to him if I did."

"Good, good. Hm, it's high time you actually learned to work on him." Dr. Wily got a new look in his eyes, one that Crystal wasn't sure she understood. It was frightful, but also something not unlike a happy emotion, so she contented herself with that. "You're going to need to know how to repair him."

"Really?" Crystal Bot squealed with glee. "Yay! Come on, you guys! Let's go get him now!"

Crystal Bot ran off with delight, followed by Heat and Bubble Man. With them off on their assignment, Dr. Wily waved to the others. Crash Man and Algorhythm Man followed the mad doctor to Dr. Cain's office right away. Frantic Man knew he should go along to, but he stopped for just a moment and watched as the other robots left. But he couldn't stay behind forever, and with one last glance he too went to the room in the back.

Dr. Cain's office was small. Like his secret room, it had walls of painted concrete blocks and a nice tile floor rather than just be another chamber in the cave. Other than his paper files and a single computer at his desk, there wasn't anything in there, giving the place a nice open feel. Well, there was also a picture of his two sons as younger children, but that had been snatched up by Wood Man, who amused himself by laughing at the fact they were dressed up as mice.

"It was a school play, alright?" Nikola hissed, attempting to snatch the picture away from Wood Man. "Give that back!"

"I'm not done looking at it." the tree-bot just smiled and held it out of the scientist's reach. "Hey Quick Man, wanna see his kids? They actually look kinda smart."

Wood Man tossed it through the air at the far wall, leaving Dr. Cain to gasp in horror. Quick Man dashed over to it, and before anyone could really comprehend what was going on he was standing there, casually looking at the picture he just barely caught.

"Heh, you're right. They do look smart. Take after their mom, don't they, Cain?"

"I refuse to play 'keep-away' with you infantile robots!" Dr. Cain seethed. "If you know what's good for you, put that down!"

"What? You're really threatening my robots?" Wily entered the room, trying to make his voice sound bored. His amusement, however, would not be contained. "Heh, you're not really in the position to do anything to them. Quick Man, put that down. I'm sure Dr. Cain misses them a lot. Make sure he never feels _lonely_, from now on."

"Oh definitely." Quick Man flashed his brilliant grin. He put the picture atop a paper file and took several steps closer to Dr. Cain, standing just behind him at the exact, irritating angle to make the losing doctor as uncomfortable as possible. "He sure looks like he could use a friend."

Cain rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth as if he were the picture perfect definition of frustration. "Look, Wily, you have to know what you're interfering with! This is my most brilliant plan ever! I've spent months working on this, and you can't stand in the way of what I've done! You just can't! Look here, at these papers all over my desk. These illustrate my plans for the destruction of earth's sentient machines and even provided a ten year plan for economic recovery! Look at all this work I've done! The earth will recover from all this robot nonsense!"

As Dr. Cain spoke, Dr. Wily sauntered on behind the desk, sitting himself in Dr. Cain's chair as patiently as you please. He listened to Cain's words without reaction. He merely slumped into the chair with abrupt, casual attention. As Dr. Cain finished his words, desperately clinging to the papers on his desk, Dr. Wily cleared his throat. A moment later, two thunks sounded as Wily calmly lifted each of his booted feet and plopped them on the desk, right atop all of the paperwork.

"Erk!' Dr. Cain startled. "Hey, wait, what are you doing? All of this is valuable information!"

Dr. Wily lazily directed his head over to his robots. "This guy just doesn't get it. Crash Man, help me out here."

"Ha ha! Okay!"

The bomb robot scooted another chair next to his master, sitting down next to him. His legs went up next, joining Dr. Wily's on the desk.

"Oh, I got some grass stuck in my foot armor." Crash Man noticed. "Well, I'll just get that off..."

Crash Man lifted his foot and smacked it back down repeatedly on the desk, not only denting the desk and wrinkling up the plans, but also getting green and black smudges all over the blueprints for some machine none of the robots cared about. They snickered together, creating a fitting ambiance for Dr. Cain's ever reddening face.

"Stop it! I can't believe what you're doing to my work!" Dr. Cain was ready to pull his hair out. "You don't understand all that I've done to ensure humanity's safe transition back into a robot free society! I beg of you, stop this at once!"

"Wow. I can't believe it. He still doesn't get it." Wily pulled down his legs, contentedly glorying in his dominance - in other words, he quite enjoyed Dr. Cain's groveling. "Wood Man, perhaps you had better make sure that my point is perfectly clear."

Crash Man followed Wily's example and pulled his legs off of the desk. Just in time too. Wood Man shoved Dr. Cain aside and lifted his huge fists. They banged into the wooden desk with noise and violence, pounding fist after fist into the actually very nice desk. It wasn't a cheap desk, but one of those nice ones with the thick plank construction. Too bad it ended up being smashed in half, with its middle shredded to splinters and the sides leaning in. The papers on it were smashed and scattered all over the floor, leaving nothing for Dr. Cain to do but stare at it with a face drained of blood.

"Let me make myself very clear." Done playing around, Wily's tone got serious. He got out from behind the decimated desk and began to circle Dr. Cain. "I am entirely in charge of this situation. None of your plans matter. Do you really think that I'm here to make humanity _better_? They won't get anything from me but destruction! It's my plan to make absolutely certain that they remember the name of Albert Wily, and fear!"

Cain started to shudder. It was beginning to dawn on him exactly how much trouble he was in. Wily wasn't like others. He had no sense of rationality or concern for people. Before this, Nikola would have said he knew that already, only now it was so much more real. The wrinkled, despicable face of the old man was without mercy, and for someone that generally associated age with old fashioned naiivety or senility, this revelation was frightening to deal with. Dr. Wily was completely insane.

_That's what comes of having only robots for company!_

"You're lucky, Cain." Wily grinned in a not at all friendly manner. "I could use your help. If you're good, you'll get through this alive. Just do some programming for me. This base you have here is just perfect, too. You won't even be able to think about escaping this cave. Remember, Cain, you're helpful, but I _can _get by without you. Just don't act like a fool, and you'll see the other side. Quick Man will watch and make sure that you remember this. Right, Quick Man?"

"Sure." Quick Man's grins were never comforting, and Cain shuddered once more. "I'll protect him from his stupidity! See how nice I am, Dr. Cain?"

Dr. Cain managed the courage to scowl at the red and yellow robot. Algorhythm Man neared his creator. He didn't like where this situation was going and he didn't know how to get his master out of it, but he was at least going to support his master in the nice but meaningless gesture of standing beside him.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Sorry that this chapter is a day late. I'm thinking of moving the update day to Saturday anyway, but you'll hear more about that later.

- It's actually Signal Man's idea that Frantic Man can't talk, not Cain's.

- _Gwenchannulkoheyo_ means "it will be okay".

Character profiles!

=====Wood Man

**"Enjoy the marvels of nature!"**

Good point: Naturalist

Bad point: Touchy disposition

Like: Mountaineering

Dislike: Harm to nature.

Y'know, one of the things I never got about Wood Man is why a lot of people are crazy about his theme. I mean, it's a good tune, but it seems over hyped to me. I dunno.

Anyway, Wood Man was created by Wily for the same reason his other Team 2 robots: to prove that he had more skill than Dr. Light. He wanted to see if he could make a robot made entirely out of wood, just to spite common science and prove it could be done. Well, not only could it be done, but Wood Man actually turned out to be a magnificent fighter. His leaf shield proved to be very strong, and his attack tripped up fighters very well. Wood Man recieved some mild teasing in his earliest years for his unusual construction, but the building of Team 5 later on pretty much erased this, and it wasn't that bad in the first place.

Wood Man is very loyal to Wily. He's fairly sensitive, and sometimes the slightest wrong word can set him off. He's completely intolerant of those that don't serve Wily well, and tends to get angry if other robots needlessly cut down trees or stomp on woodland creatures. However, he's not angry all the time. He has about the disposition of a Highland middle-aged man, and if he were human, he'd probably be a drinker. He's reasonable most of the time, but most robots, particularly the ones weaker than him, try to avoid getting on his nerves.

===== Flash Man

**"Stop in the name of love!"**

Good point: Kind to subordinates

Bad point: Whiner

Like: Camera

Dislike: Commercials for wigs

I can't get over how cheesy that quote is. Actually, I can't get over his data. I put the Japanese data up here, because I just wasn't going to bother with the english. They actually put "miseryguts" rather than "whiner". How in the world is "miseryguts" more coherent? On the plus side, I know have a new insult. :D Proto Lawrence, don't be such a miseryguts. Oops, I mean RedAxl. ;) Oh, and by the way, the only classic games I consider strictly canon are Mega Mans 1-8 and Mega Man and Bass. Game boy games, Powered Up, etc don't count as far as the main story goes. Whoops, we're talking about Flash Man now...

Flash Man really enjoys working for Wily. He enjoys being the first time freezing robot, and he's very happy working with any of Wily's servants to get something done. Whenever Quick Man wants to split up Team 2, he generally puts Flash Man in charge of the other half. Flash Man very much loves serving Wily, and constantly volunteers himself and his team to do things - much to the chagrin of his team.

Flash Man, after his defeat, was one of the first robots to enter the newly built robot museum completed shortly before MM3. He was broken out by an impatient Wily later on so that he could use Flash Man to show his captive Dr. Cossack how to create a time freezing robot when Dr. Cossack attempted to delay finishing Bright Man. Flash Man, however, was incomplete at this point, and wasn't fully restored until MM8 when Wily started playing around with evil energy. Flash Man wasn't finished in time before Duo and Mega Man destroyed the evil energy, but he was still completed eventually and continued to serve Wily.

Flash Man narrowly escaped being a servant of Dr. Cain by using his time stopping ability to freeze some already captured robots from taking him over. He was one of the last robots to find the rest of his team, and together they engineered Wily's escape from prison.


	14. In the Mad Scientist's Lair

Mega Man was never one to give up. He had to find out where Crystal Bot had gone. Monstropolis was a big city, but even then he knew his way around it. He also knew Crystal Bot's last intentions, or at least the ones she told to Auto: she had gone to find some parts for Dub. Mega Man knew that most of the machine shops in Monstropolis would be shut down from the lack of supplies coming into the city, but there were still a few places to go where functioning parts could be aquired, if they weren't too large or complicated.

So the blue bomber knew exactly where he was going when he flew over the city on Rush jet. Normally he talked to Rush as they flew together, but today he was entirely silent. Over the past months he'd done a lot of worrying about his sister, and today was so much worse. He'd hoped that maybe Roll wasn't with Crystal Bot. Maybe she had just left the house without telling him. She could have been visiting a neighbor or taking a walk...without answering a transmission, for some reason. At any moment since her disappearance he'd hoped that she would randomly appear back at the lab safe and sound, or he would hear her voice through the radio waves telling him that she had just gone to the store.

He wasn't that naiive. Mega Man inwardly knew that Roll was in horrible danger, probably Crystal Bot's captive. As much as Bass doubted Crystal Bot's capacity to be evil, Mega Man wasn't in the place to doubt it. Rock very much wanted Sonata to become a good guy and be a happy technician, but she was now like any other enemy to him. If she was endangering Monstropolis, she would be dealt with.

Mega Man directed Rush over to Greenwood Drive. It was a street near the edge of Monstropolis, away from the taller buildings and the more crowded roads. The northeast side of Monstropolis was hardly rural, but it did give Mega Man the sense of relaxation from crowded city design. There were more homes and less apartments; more owner-run stores and less shopping complexes.

One of these old shops was run by Mr. Albert Redford, an older gentleman who had been in Monstropolis since day one of Dr. Wily's obsession with destroying it. He was a good storekeeper, but a fairly strict one to his employees. He ended up being called "Wily" himself, as no one ever let it pass he had the same name as the villain. Maybe if he was as sweet as pie people would forget about it, but as long as he kept going down the areas of his store going "sweep that floor", "don't get grease all over the walls", and "we're overstocked on data cards so sell 30 today", then he was going to be called Old Man Wily for the rest of his life. It didn't help that Redford was himself a robot engineer that preferred working on his stock himself, so he was perpetually disheveled. This included his hair: wild, grey, and balding. It got to the point where he kept it in a ponytail just to stop people from pointing out the resemblance.

Mega Man spied out Redford's shop in the distance. He actually liked it very much. It was in one of those old buildings with the metal walls that nobody built nowadays, making the place look sort of like a 1960's warehouse. Structurally speaking, it was perfectly boring. Just a giant, grey metal rectangle. However, the grass around it was green, the parking lot freshly paved, and bright red letters painted right on the wall, announcing "REDFORD ROBOT SHOP: HOURS 10 TO 10 MONDAY-SATURDAY 2 TO 10 SUNDAY". Those hours hadn't changed in thirty years.

Rock made Rush land in the parking lot. After Rush changed back into dog form, Mega Man gave him a pat on the head.

"You stay outside and keep an eye out for something suspicious, okay, boy? I don't think we're being followed but I don't want to take a chance."

"Woof!" Rush wagged his tail.

Mega Man managed a little smile for his pet, but it faded as soon as he went through the big, already open metal door. It was the sort that opened just like a garage, so all Redford had to do to open was push the buttons at the control panel. The interior of the shop was much like the outer: it gave the shopper a sense of the old timey general store experience. The back of the shop was a separate room, but since the double doors to it were perpetually open, anyone could see metal arms moving, sparks flying, and the mechanical workers moving things back and forth. As for this half of the building, it dealt with the more fragile components of robots: chips, datacards, and some standardization software that made programs compatible with most robots. These were meant to be set up on the walls and cover the register counter over to the left. The center of the room held the armors, incomplete weapon arms (buster generators were locked up elsewhere), structural supports, and even a set of robotic faces on the wall to the right.

However, Mega knew this from memory. As it was now, the shelves and counters were mostly empty, besides a couple armors and a few specialized tools. What little there was left was being looked over by a few people from town, but with the drop in shipments Mega Man guessed that what little stock was left would be gone at the end of the week, if shipping didn't get reorganized and sent into town soon.

"Well hey there, Mega Man." a petite, freckled girl called out from behind the counter. "I ain't got much left out here, but if we've got what you're looking for, I'll try and get it for you."

"Hi, Holly." The blue bomber approached the counter. "Actually, I'm looking for Mr. Redford. Do you know where he is?"

"Sure. He's working. I'll go get him."

Holly casually got out from behind the counter. She was a sweet high school girl, a junior from South Carolina, who spent her afternoons picking up some cash for college working for him. As always, she was dressed to cute perfection in her green, frilly blouse and tan capris, and yet somehow she still fit in with the masculine greasemonkey look of the place. Holly was to this place as lemonade was to old, dusty front porches with rocking chairs.

"Hey Old Man!" Holly hollered through the door to the back. "You got someone lookin' for you!"

"What?" Redford's cantankerous voice came through above all the noise of the workshop. "Give me a minute!"

Holly, content that her work was done, went on back behind the counter. Before she reached it, the long legged strides of Albert Redford were already carrying him out into the store. He was a strong man, and rightly so. He had been putting machines together since the only "robots" that existed were Microsoft computers. Whatever he was doing that day, he sure was dirty. Redford wiped his hands on an already pitifully oil-blackened rag as he approached.

"Hey there, Mega Man." it wasn't hard to guess who wanted him. "What can I get for you? I'm afraid that stock isn't great right now."

"That's okay." the cute hero-bot said. "I just wanted to talk to you about something. You know a robot named Crystal Bot, right?"

"Sure I do." the human nodded. "She called me the other day from Russia wanting a part for a mechaniloid of hers. Said she was going to be here in Monstropolis soon, but I haven't seen hide or hair of her since, except when I called to tell her the part was in. This was before everything went haywire, mind you. Managed to get here in time." Redford stuffed his rag down an overall pocket. "You here to pick it up? I'm surprised she hasn't shown up yet."

"Well, you see, that's the problem." Mega Man's voice, though pained, remained steady. His eyes focused on Redford with a sternness that the human didn't understand. "You see, Crystal Bot and Roll are gone. No one knows where they are. Last we knew, Crystal was coming here."

"Sorry, she didn't show up." Redford shrugged. "Maybe she and Roll went somewhere. Doesn't seem like your sister not to tell you, though."

The bomber was quiet a moment, then lifted his eyes once more to change the subject. "You've got a lot of work going on in the back for someone who hasn't been getting the proper shipment of metal in. It's just as noisy as always back there, and shipment of metal is almost null right now."

"You see," Redford said carefully. "I had a lot of metal in storage. I tend to overbuy for emergencies. Always got to be prepared."

"You saved enough to take the contract for replacing all the broken track at the railway?" Rock lifted an eyebrow, cutting into his typical adorable look. "And two dozen cargo cars? Seems like a lot of work for a robotics shop of this size. Those aren't even your only two major contracts. I've done the research. Plus, there are witnesses reporting that you were here at midnight to present to large crates to persons unknown. Now, when exactly over the past three decades has this shop been open to customers later than ten o'clock? You might as well come clean, Mr. Redford. The way I figure it, whoever has been giving you those supplies has something to do with the disappearance of Crystal Bot and my sister. Isn't that right?"

Redford startled. He stammered a bit, trying to find something to say. Finally he stiffened, straightening up and clearing his throat. That got a reaction out of Holly, who had been paying half attention to their converstation. It wasn't as if she had much else to do. Her eyes were almost as wide as Redford's were, at least until he saw her.

"Holly, you go and clean those display shelves while there's no stuff on 'em." Redford added a firm point of his finger at the shelves for emphasis. "Go on."

"Alright, I'm going."

Holly did get out from behind the counter and saunter on out to the shelves - emphasis on saunter. She went on looking at Mega Man and Redford, reluctantly hoping that they would stop watching her go and continue the conversation while she was still in earshot. Mega Man, however, had just enough patience to wait until she gave up and went to get some rags before letting their talk go forward. Once she was gone, he stared at Redford with firm expectancy, waiting for the human to come up with some excuse.

"Now look here." Redford wasn't about to back down, and while he knew he was caught he wasn't going to go as far to say that he was wrong. "Everything I did was to keep my employees here safe. I got to watch out for them. This place'd been a crater long before now if I didn't."

"And it's my job to watch out for Monstropolis." Rock was as steady as his name when he spoke. "It's hard for me to take that someone like you would be involved in illegal activity. If you were in danger, why didn't you tell me?"

It surprised Redford how crushed he felt for disappointing Mega Man. He seemed in pain as he pulled back, cringing at the hero's stern glare. His tongue darted out to lick his lips, something he always did when he was nervous.

"It's like this, Mega Man," Redford attempted to explain. "Y'see, I've been in this town ever since my dad pulled us out of North Carolina, and I've seen us been blowed up so many times that it's a wonder we're still standing. I admit I'd made a good livin' off of building robots, but...well, if there's going to be a villain running around these parts, I'd a million times rather it'd be Nikola Cain rather than Albert Wily. Cain at least thinks he's helping out. Wily doesn't care about anyone but himself."

"Oh, I get it now." Mega Man nodded, folding his arms. "I knew Dr. Cain's mechaniloids had to come from somewhere. He was always just a programmer, and he wouldn't have the ability to produce robots on his own. So that's why you're the only mechanic in Monstropolis that has what it needs to keep running: Cain makes sure that you do. Nice trick for you to leave your shelves empty so no one would be suspicious."

He was shorter than Redford but that didn't stop him from making the human feel completely guilty. He winced like a child being scolded for hitting a dog.

"Look, I didn't exactly volunteer to work for Cain." Redford rubbed his neck, and if he kept it up the skin there would be completely raw. "He showed up at my shop last year with these eight robots, and he says if I don't start building for him then he's destoying everything I got. He even wrecked my guard-bot with one of his fancy viruses. He called me up because he heard that Crystal Bot was looking for him, and he wanted me to lure her here so that he could deal with her. I couldn't resist without putting my workers in danger. There was nothing I could do about it."

"You mean besides tell me?" Mega Man's frown deepened, and the restrained anger on his face was enough to bring sorrow to any heart with the worry that they had been the one to offend him. "You at least could have mentioned something while he was in prison. Or were you afraid that the law would interfere with your life? Well, there's no getting past it this time. I'm really sorry, Redford, but I've already contacted the police."

The old man paled, lost in a world of horror. To a person like him, it was the worst thing in the world for the law to suddenly appear and let everyone in his shop know exactly what he had done.

"Don't worry too much." Mega Man said quietly, shifting a bit as he departed from his stern mannerisms. "I want to do everything I can to find out what happened to my sister. I'm going to take you downtown, and on the way you can tell me everything you know about Dr. Cain's whereabouts. Even if you don't know for sure, any information can help."

"I'm really sorry, I don't know." Redford answered, completely honest. "His robots just show up here with supplies and demands."

Mega Man sighed. Already he had so much worrying to do, and not knowing where his sister was killed him on the inside. He had sworn to protect his family after Dr. Light died, and now here he was trying to find his missing sister. That never happened while Dr. Light was alive; he had screwed up somewhere.

"That's...fine for now." the robot finally said. "Let's just go. I'll signal for the police to come and protect your shop. Dr. Cain's robots will probably show up again at some point, and we won't let him do any more damage to Monstropolis, here or otherwise."

-t-

"This is just amazing..." Epic Man told his brother. "We finally get to work with Dr. Wily! And he even says he'll upgrade us! For once we're going to have a real plan, with real destruction!"

"I don't know why you like him so much." Algorhythm Man replied, sneering at Epic Man. "Here we are just hauling supplies for him like a slave."

And so they were. They bore in their arms bins of machine parts; Wily had taken one look at their mechaniloids and refused to work with them. That meant that all the robots would be working as hard as possible to get a good invasion force going. It was only a few hours since Wily's arrival, and he had fully taken over the arrangements of the base. Quick Man and Crash Man took over watching for outsiders, and now all the others, especially the Cain-bots, were doing all the grunt work.

"Did Cain treat us any better?" Epic Man was so scornful he wanted to spit. "Now at least we know we're going to be kept around. Did you really think Cain would let us live after he destroyed all the rest of the robots?"

"The master wouldn't do that to us." Algorhythm shook his head, stubbornly walking a little faster. "He would let us live after we worked so hard for him. It's better at least than working for an insane man."

"Don't be such an idiot. Cain never cared about us. We could all be killed by Mega Man and all _he _would do is complain that he lost his help." Epic snorted in disdain, but after a bit managed a smug smile. "Ha, you're that daring then? You know Shadow Man is following us right at this moment. I don't suppose he'd like you backtalking his creator."

"Bah, let him hear. It's not as if I could disobey Wily now. I'll say what I like if I can't do anything else. I do wish he'd let me stay with Dr. Cain. I don't like him being guarded by Heat Man."

"Ah yes," Epic Man oozed sarcasm. "Because Wily cares _ever so much_ about his enemies. Come on, here's the lab, so at least don't talk that way in front of Dr. Wily. He _is _my hero, you know. A remarkable champion for a robot's rights!"

Dr. Cain's main lab was much like his communications room: a large, stone space with an arched roof. This building was larger and shaped more like a rectangle with rounded ends, but the metal supports going into the roof showed that it was generally constructed the same way. Crystal Bot wasn't sure she liked this lab. Dr. Cain didn't have a single automated machine in the place. That meant that tedious, generic work that had to be done on any particular robot had to be done herself, and she couldn't focus on more interesting tasks.

She supposed she should be grateful. The lab did have several repair tables in the center, as well as two wall computers fifteen feet and ten feet long each. The larger one was on the north wall, and it had the lab's viewscreen. The smaller one was shorter because it was on the wall that had a door in it, leading into a storage room.

"Bah, Grandpa." Crystal Bot huffed as she went off to the main computer to push some buttons, leaving a half-armored Zero behind at her repair table. "This lab isn't efficient at all. I can't work in a place like this."

"Don't say that, sweetheart." Wily said from the next repair table over, where he worked on hacking into Roll. "You're simply used to the best. You've been at Light's, Cossack's, and of course _my _labs. You never had the chance to realize how much superior we are to low-grade fools like Cain."

"Can you please wait until I'm out of the room to insult my intelligence?"

Dr. Cain was still in the lab, working at the larger of the control panels. His fingers didn't stop typing even as he turned to give Dr. Wily his nastiest glare. He wasn't too afraid to spite Wily with his words, but he was afraid to stop working. Heat Man was starting to look eager to spit flames, and his eye was getting twitchy. Cain had the feeling that Wily would let his robot attack, so he would program those viruses just as he was told.

"Hm, what was that?" Wily looked around himself in pretend confusion. "Crystal Bot, did you hear something?"

"Nope! Sure didn't!" she giggled, going back to her repair table. "You must be hearing things."

Algorhythm Man tried his hardest to keep his ugly scowl under control as he and his brother entered, though he did let Crystal bear the brunt of some of it while she passed him by. They approached Dr. Wily with their loads. Algorhythm Man refused to get too close to the evil doctor, but Epic Man was of the opposite spirit. He could hardly contain his great big grin, and he approached the doctor very merrily.

"Dr. Wily, we've brought what you told us." he said. "What do you want us to do with this?"

"Go to them and have them show you the _right_ way to build a non-sentient robot." Wily pointed at the repair tables further down the room, where several other robots worked. "I want to produce at least one hundred and fifty by tomorrow, and we're not relying on some transplanted redneck for them. Redford? Bah! Get to it."

"Right away!"

Epic Man went off with his box, not at all disheartened by the menial labor ahead of him. Algorhythm Man groaned as he tagged along.

_" - Suck up. - "_

_" - Oh, shut your face, little brother. - "_

Epic Man wasn't disheartened by Algorhythm Man at all. He reached the other robots first, then promptly, and teasingly, punched Algorhythm Man in the arm.

"Stop. You'll get me in trouble in front of your hero."

"Oh, stop your whining and give me that box." Epic Man laughed. "Now, Sight Man, how are those mechaniloids coming?"

Sight Man had been pulled from the base's outer security, mostly because Wily wasn't sure how much he trusted one of the Cain-bots as a guard. The black, metal ant was standing over this repair table, where the scattered pieces of some sort of flying mechaniloid were stretched out before him. A stack of the completed tellies lay at the base of the table, representing how much he managed to complete while Epic Man was running around.

"This is harder than it looks." Sight Man lifted a screwdriver and started to fiddle with a tellie's frame. "Bah, I can't stand doing construction when my real forte is fighting."

"Don't you mention Forte to me." A sour Algorthythm Man joined Epic Man at a repair table and started to sort out the contents of the boxes they brought in. "I should have killed him long ago. I swear, Wily must have modeled Bass after himself. I can very easily see the similarities between the two bastards."

"Stop saying stuff like that." Bubble Man let his eyes wander with worry over toward the other side of the lab. "Wily might hear you. He can't stand Bass. Don't compare them if you want to live. Speaking of which, let me show you how to build these. We've got two other types of mechaniloids to get to work on, and if we don't have a suitable force by the end of the week, Wily won't be happy. He's not a patient guy."

Algorhythm Man blinked, his mouth forming a line as he turned to his brother and spoke in a completely flat voice. "Yes, I see very clearly why you love Dr. Wily so much. He is a great and magnanimous master with all the wisdom of an ancient sage."

Epic Man grinned. "Yes, indeed. So true. Pity you never recognised evil as an art form. Now Bubble Man, how exactly do we install these propulsion systems?"

Wily wasn't listening to their converstation, fortunately for them. He did let his eyes go up from his (Cain's) handheld computer and his work on Roll to glance at them with the suspicion that they weren't working quite as hard as he wanted them to. They were working, and besides the four robots mentioned above, Wood, Metal, Bullet, Signal, Psycho, and Frantic Man were all rushing to make enough mechaniloids to keep their master happy. A steady, growing pile of non-sentient machines was below at their feet, so many in fact that Frantic and Wood Man were assigned to start hauling them off to store elsewhere.

"Okay, I got all his armor back on, Grandpa." Crystal Bot tapped on Zero's shoulder with his screwdriver, producing an absolutely perfect _ping_ just as it should.

"Why exactly did you take it off in the first place?" Wily asked, looking up from his handheld. "Being my spy and all."

She giggled, smiling in a way that would be accompanied by a blush were she human. "Come on, this is the best robot you ever built, and you expect me not to be curious? Aw, he's so cool! Please tell me he's ready to go! Aw, I wanna see him fight stuff! Please?"

"Haha, be patient. We'll get to him soon enough." Dr. Wily said. "We're saving him for last. First we're going to need to prepare a distraction, so that the peoples of this world will have no clue what is about to happen to them! Bah. It would be much easier if Roll here was being more cooperative."

The wild-haired old man gritted his teeth at Roll, as if growling at her would remove the security in her head and make her give up all the secrets of Light Laboratories. Crystal Bot quickly rushed to his side.

"Oops! I almost forgot to tell you." she took the handheld computer from Dr. Wily. "I didn't remove all the stuff I put on Roll's head yet. I didn't want Dr. Loser over there to find out anything." she scowled mockingly in his direction before returning to the datapad. "That, and the file doesn't really work right. It's supposed to repress her goodie-goodie A.I., but well, you know I'm no good at artificial intelligence. Here, lemme show you what I did. It's this file here...and...bingo!"

With the pressing of several buttons in sequence, the blonde girl's eyes opened. For a moment, she simply groaned and blinked. Seconds later, she was screaming her head off. The robots over at the far side of the room stared, frozen and not focusing at all on their construction. Dr. Cain turned back in his chair, a foul aura about him.

"For the love of something you care about," Cain hissed. "If you're going to make me work for you, at least shut that piece of junk up."

"You shut up!" Wily yelled, starting to turn red. He glared over at the now very distracted robots on the far side of the lab. "And you over there, get back to work!"

"Eek, Roll, stop it! Bad girl!" Crystal Bot turned and called out, "Dub!"

The green spider-bot was formerly engaged in getting more bolts for the mechaniloids, but at that call he dropped everything. His long legs had him across the room in three strides, and in seconds Roll was bound by his metal arms. One claw clamped down on her face, but it wasn't really necessary. The sudden sensation of being held down sent Roll into shock, and she stopped, whimpering a little.

"I see..." Dr. Wily thought, still miffed a bit, but calming down. Opportunities to show off his technological superiority had that effect on him. "I know what you did wrong. you were trying too hard to repress normal A.I. functions. That doesn't stop me from hacking into her, it just stops her from being conscious."

"_Jongmal-ehyo_?" Crystal Bot stared at Roll more or less like she was a broken computer. "Oops."

"What are you talking about?" Cain still wasn't minding his own business. "It was giving me trouble!"

Wily's eyes widened, and he nodded in a way that was fairly reminiscent of a kindergarten teacher affirming that his student's scribble did indeed look like a duck - only it it didn't really. Wily smiled with restrained laughter, just enough to make Dr. Cain squirm in his seat.

"Are you sure you want to admit that?" Wily said. "Don't let me interrupt your programming. Heat Man, if our gracious host turns anywhere from that computer screen for the next two hours without my permission, then shoot him in the leg. He doesn't need legs to program."

Dr. Cain immediately snapped around in his chair and settled into his work, letting his ordinarily very quick fingers go even quicker than usual. Drops of sweat appeared on his pale skin; even though he wasn't looking, he could see in his periphery Heat Man's hideous smirk. Of all the Team 2 robots, Heat Man's horrible grin looked the most like his creator's. It was as if they both practiced in the mirror how exactly to look as evil as possible.

"Tee hee." Crystal Bot giggled. "I feel kinda bad for him."

"Don't. He's getting exactly what he deserves." Finally blinking and coming to see Roll as more of a person, Wily leaned forward with question. "Hm. It's been a long time since I was able to work on you, Roll. You've really been upgraded."

Crystal Bot could tell that Wily was curious enough to talk to Roll, so she gestured for Dub to let go of her face. The spider-bot still clung tightly, keeping Roll's arms in check. Seeing as she had no options, Roll relaxed a little, but her brows were still pinched with worry and doubt. She glared several daggers at Crystal Bot before turning her hatred to Wily. Yes indeed, she did hate the man. Though it had been months and a lifetime ago, Roll knew what Wily's goals were, and no matter how much his evil grin shined on her she scowled right on back. She had seen the Maverick virus and knew the future. She wasn't going to be afraid of one old man again...she hoped.

He was the one that made the future horrible. Dr. Wily had created that awful virus, which plagued robots, started wars, and ultimately destroyed the future. One foolish man had done enough to ruin the earth for the simple reason that "they didn't appreciate him". How stupid could he get? The world had no attention span. It got caught up with someone for fifteen minutes, then go tired of them and let them go about their lives. The best people in the world were those that could live and die without craving attention, but accomplishing a good goal that made life not only happier for them, but everyone else. Dr. Light had taught her that, and she wasn't going to forget it.

All of this showed up on her face as clearly as if someone had written it, but unfortunately it was a feast for Dr. Wily, who fed on infamy like a vampire feeds on blood. He was on the edge of a maniacal laugh, but for the moment resisted. As if something was wrong, he glanced at her hesitantly, the gears in his head going around.

"You're not hurt are you?" he asked, with at least some vague concern for her welfare. Perhaps it was some lost partical of concern still floating around from when he had been a friend of Dr. Light. It might have been simple respect for a robot far more complex than anything Dr. Cain could have built, and Roll guessed it was that from his ugly glances in the captive scientist's direction. "Dr. Cain didn't do something weird to you, did he?"

"Oh, don't you do that!" Roll snapped, pulling against her bonds. "Don't you even pretend you're concerned about me, you horrible man! You hate your own robots! You'd let them all die if it meant you could rule the world, you sick freak! I know what you're planning! Oh yes, I know all about Hitenshi Firewall and Armorcore Anti-Virus! You're going to try to kill all the robots that there are except for Zero, just so that you'll be the 'father of the robots'! That's why you wanted Dr. Cain, because you knew he could help you do it!"

As interested as Dr. Cain was in this conversation, his eyes only went as far as Heat Man's face. From the way the lighter-bot was grinning, he knew it was just better to put his eyes right back on that screen and forget he had heard anything. But no, Roll wasn't at all done. She turned with desperation to Crystal Bot, hoping to appeal to whatever good might still be contained in her former friend.

"Sona-chan, please!" she begged. "He's only going to let you live because he wants you to repair Zero! What about Wave Man, and Stone Man and Charge Man, and all the rest? You can't want them to be destroyed! He's even going to kill all the robots that work for him! As soon as they do what he wants, the data-kill virus will disable them and delete their minds! I saw it happen to Gemini Man...it was so horrible...he died right in front of me..."

Roll quieted as she remembered the horror. She whimpered again, squinching together her eyelids as the pain refreshed itself anew. She had been at Kalinka's house, preparing for the arrival of Kalinka's child. That day which had started so marvelously was only one of the first in a long series of terrible atrocities, the first of which was Gemini Man's terrible death as he and his team tried to kidnap or kill Kalinka. Roll had never been sure which.

**Dub jumped in, using his spidery legs to trap Gemini Man. Though the robot tried to escape in any direction he could, one of Dub's eight legs was always in his way. Gemini Man made an attempt to jump over the body of Dub, but was caught by the leg and brought to the ground. Before he could do anything about it, Dub had him pinned securely.**

**"Good job, Dub!" Roll cheered. "Keep him there so that Rock can question him, okay?"**

**"No!" Gemini Man immediately protested in fear. "You can't do that! Anything but that!"**

**"What did Algorhythm Man mean when he mentioned war?" Kalinka asked. "What kind of war is it?"**

**Gemini Man didn't answer. He was hurriedly trying to get Dub's limbs out from around him, but failing. Every time he managed as much as an arm, the spider-bot's claws would snatch it down again. Gemini Man was starting to get frantic.**

**"Answer her question." Skull Man said, readying his buster.**

**Gemini Man finally responded, turning to the others in desperation. "Don't do that! Stop it!"**

**"Stop what?" Mega Man asked.**

**The Wily-bot turned his head so quickly that Mega Man thought it might snap. "Stop asking me questions! I can't answer them! Now let me go! Or just kill me yourselves! Whichever you prefer!"**

**This wasn't at all like the Gemini Man they knew. Where was the overly confident, gleaming-smiled robot that didn't even seem to know how to be afraid? Mega Man went closer, despite the terrified gasps of those behind him. **

**"Please, tell us what's going on-"**

**"Why did you have to do this to me...WHY?" Gemini Man screamed at all present. "I could have died fighting! **_**I hate you**_**! I hope-"**

**With a sickening twitch, the screaming stopped, replaced by an agonizing moan. Two more futile thrashings later, there was nothing left. Gemini Man's body fell limp, settling down as gravity tugged his head and limbs to the floor. **

As Roll opened her eyes, she noticed Crystal Bot waving at her, trying to get her attention.

"Um, Roll, Gemini Man wasn't killed by a virus. It was the Cain-bots." Crystal turned to the far part of the lab. As hard as they were working, it was difficult for the robots mentioned not to hear what was going on. "Isn't that true, you guys?"

"Yeah." Signal Man spoke up, his nervous eyes flitting toward Wily and silently begging to be forgiven for answering instead of working. "Me and Frantic Man took out him and Sword Man out in the far north part of Russia weeks ago. We didn't use a virus."

If one of Roll's hands were free, she would have facepalmed. How could she forget that all of the robot apocalypse, the Maverick Wars, and discovering the terrible future would be all nonsense to anyone else? It happened in another universe, another world that hadn't yet come. Remembering what she was told, Roll straightened herself. She was going to change all that future and make it better! Granted, she didn't know how, but she would do it anyway! That's the spirit!

"She's been like this since exactly two weeks after Dr. Light died." Crystal explained to Dr. Wily. "She says weird things and her emotional relay is all out of wack. I don't know why. Auto's worked on her like a billion times since then."

Wily didn't immediately answer. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, staring critically at Roll. She kept resolve set on her face, refusing to show outwardly how nervous she was. The grizzly mad scientist said nothing. He didn't react at all. He only stared at her, letting the gears of his mind turn and turn. Roll knew she had struck a nerve. After all, Roll saw the world where Wily's mad schemes had come true. She knew his tricks already. He leaned forward, getting much closer to Roll than she was comfortable with. She pulled back as far as she could go, but Dub's constraining legs kept her well within an awkward proximity of Wily's face.

"How much of this does Mega Man know?"

"Everything!" Roll blurted out. "He knows all your plans!"

_Oh no! Why didn't I tell Rock anything? I can't believe how stupid I am! I'm a complete idiot! Why, why, why, WHY?_

Was Dr. Wily reading her mind? Instead of being afraid, he was amused. Backing away, he chuckled a little. It was a dark chuckle. Oh, he was mad. Roll hadn't forgotten his subtleties (of which the blunt man had few), though it was years since she had last seen Dr. Wily in person. He was mad. Amused, yes, but very, very mad. Crystal Bot noticed the reactions of both people, but said nothing. She just looked back and forth from one face to another, not letting anything but her eyes move as she waited patiently. She was very used to working with Dr. Wily.

"You're still a terrible liar, Roll." he said. "Weakling. Your brother doesn't know anything. _You_ don't know anything. How could you? You're a simple housekeeper with no real part in anything that's happened in the past forty years. Now that Dr. Light is dead, you have no purpose at all. You're making all this up just to seem important."

It was as if the man was schooled well in How To Make Roll as Pissed Off and Hurt as Possible 101. As much as she tried to look fierce and unafraid, she couldn't fight back her simulated grief. Were she human, hot tears would be streaking down her face. As it was, that was the only thing missing from her picture of sadness. She started shaking and glitching. She looked again at Crystal Bot for support, but there was no reaction.

"Horrible...I hate you..."

Neither Wily or his "granddaughter" was sure which one of them she meant, but neither one reacted in shame. Dr. Wily just rolled his eyes. Crystal folded her arms in annoyance.

"Grandpa, she's really bugging me. Can I reprogram her now? I think I know what I did wrong with it."

Dr. Wily chortled. "Hack into her first. I want as much data as possible. Focus on anything you can find about Light Laboratories, and see if you can find out what the hell she was saying about Gemini Man. I'll check on Zero. I hope Dr. Cain was smart enough not to put anything on Zero's CPU..."

Though Wily's hateful look was wasted on his prisoner, who didn't dare look away from his programming, the threatening growl of Wily's voice was enough to make him shudder. Crystal Bot, however, giggled at this.

"Ha, don't worry about him." she said as she gleefully neared Roll, swinging about a screwdriver to taunt her. "He didn't even get past Zero's outermost security. I checked."

"Good."

Wily said that word with finality. Crystal Bot knew that meant he was going into "I'm programming now so leave me alone" status. Smiling, she reached over to Roll to shut her down.

"Sona-chan, please!" Roll begged. "You can't listen to him! If he wins he'll kill everyone and destroy the earth and eventually be responsible for the death of humanity!"

"Poor Roll." Crystal Bot turned her head to the side, looking at Roll with the sort of disdainful pity that would make anyone angry. "You're really losing it aren't you? Especially since you seem to think I'm your friend. I did warn you once, Roll. And I'll feel even sorrier for you if you dare call me by that stupid name _Forte_ gave me. Now be a good girl and shut up."

With that, Crystal reached over and shut Roll down, merrily going back to the handheld computer still stuck in Roll's neck. She began to quietly hack and program, and the room was filled with only the sounds of tapping keyboards, computer processing, and the tools and quiet conversation of the numbered robots. Poor Heat Man was looking bored, but he knew if he asked one of his Team 2 members for something to do he'd be yelled at and told to keep his attention on Dr. Cain. Out of boredom, he actually looked at what Dr. Cain was doing. Like always, most of the programming was nothing but letters and symbols in a pattern that he didn't understand.

At the bottom of the computer screen was a panel, and a little red light was going off. Curious, Heat Man glanced over at Cain's face. The human seemed to be ignoring it, focusing completely on his work; whatever he was programming, it was taking up a lot of his mental powers. He was hesistant to interrupt Dr. Cain, knowing how much Wily hated delays. But figuring that he would get in more trouble for not being cautious, Heat Man poked Dr. Cain in the shoulder.

"Hey you." he said, pointing at the screen. "What does that mean?"

"That?" Cain replied a little too innocently. "That just means I guessed wrong. That's all."

"Guessed wrong about what?" Heat Man had a feeling he might need to use his fire power. "Programming?"

"More or less. You wouldn't understand. It's very complex."

"I'll bet I can understand."

Wily appeared almost from nowhere, shoving aside Dr. Cain so that he flew out of his chair on the ground. Heat Man was quick to swing around and grab Dr. Cain, of course staying as far out of Wily's way as possible. The grumpy old scientist bent over the controls, shrinking the programming panel only to find out that there was a long distant security breach a half mile out.

"There's nothing in this area!" Wily screamed. "People wouldn't come here unless they had a specific reason to! Someone knows where we are!"

Wily immediately snapped about, directing his hateful wrath at Dr. Cain. He grabbed Dr. Cain's collar and snatched him out of Heat Man's grip, bringing him close in (poor Dr. Cain had to put up with Wily's old man breath) as he growled.

"What did you mean, you guessed wrong?" Wily hissed. "Tell me!"

"Ha, if you had let Algorhythm Man stay on security, you might have noticed them sooner." Dr. Cain grinned, ruffled but not completely undone. "No, your stupid Shadow and Metal Men have no extensive scanners. Haha, you should have trusted the superiority of my robots!"

Epic Man sent a nasty look at Algorhythm Man. _" - Why didn't you volunteer to use your scanners? - "_

_" - He told me to haul things. - " _Algorhythm Man shrugged. _" - I was just doing what I was told- - "_

Epic Man didn't take any excuse from his brother, least of all this one. He snatched up Algorhythm by the arm and shoved him toward the door.

"You stop this crap at once and go tell Metal Man and Shadow Man what's going on. Go!"

The orange and neon robot winced. His brother's face had never been uglier, but he didn't have time to wait and observe it. He just had to run off like Epic Man said, though he didn't do it without giving a grand grimace himself.

Dr. Cain was likewise tormented. It was hard to keep talking with Wily shaking him about the neck. It would have been hard to hear what Wily was saying also, only the way he was screaming the other robots were sure that he could be heard as far as Osaka.

"You tell me what's going on, NOW, Cain!"

Wily stopped shaking the victimized doctor long enough for him to grin mockingly and glance to the side. "Do I really have to say it? Can the _great_ and _powerful _Wily really not figure it out?" Here Cain's wicked glance turned to Crystal Bot and he grinned. "It turns out she wasn't _your _spy."

Dr. Wily snapped his head around (he would have a sore neck in the morning) to see that four of Dub's legs had pulled themselves from around Roll. They carried Dub and his prisoner, and were halfway out the door when Dr. Wily spotted them. Crystal Bot, however, stood stock still. Wily's evil eyes darted over to her next, and there was not a drop of mercy in them. Dr. Cain fell out of his grasp, thudding to the floor.

Perhaps a more clever person could have lied away the trouble, but Crystal's eyes gave her away at once. Her shivering alone would have done the job. She didn't bother to speak, and made no whimpering attempt at making an excuse. Nor would Wily accept one. It was far too late for that; Crystal Bot had betrayed him again. Fearing for her life, Crystal shot out the door like a bullet, leaving behind only four crystal eyes to bounce around the room and cause whatever trouble random orbs could.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Hey guys, I really owe you an apology. Through lots of personal madness, I didn't post my last update. One, I was moving, two, I found out that I had to extensively edit the tail end of it, and three, I was getting ready to travel. Travel to where? Where else? China! Had a lot of fun these past two weeks. Anywho, I'm back now and recovering from jet lag, so hopefully I can get these chapters more into order. Unfortunately, the next chapter is going to require more editing, but I plan to have it up at about next Friday or Saturday. It shouldn't take me too long. Honestly, I really hate to end the chapter at this point, but I'd like you guys to at least be able to read something of mine after this wait.

- I'm kinda sad I made Redford a baddie. I like him.

- A tellie is one of those endlessly homing at you bad guys that appear several times in Mega Man classic, just in case you haven't played those games. These baddies are kinda shaped like flying metal cans.

=====Heat Man

**"Wait a minute...I'll get ignited!"**

Good point: Living

Bad point: Burned out

Likes: Barbecue

Dislikes: Ice cream

Dislikes ice cream? Blasphemy! I really don't get his good point. Living? The Japanese data doesn't help, as it only says "my pace" instead, which is arguably more confusing.

Heat Man was one of Dr. Wily's favorite robots. He was built after MM1 to be a better version of Fire Man. In this Wily succeeded, and Wily was most proud of Heat Man's cruising teleport, in which he traveled as a beam of fire.

Heat Man was never very motivated, as his high temperatures can tire him out easily. However, the rest of the group is proud to have him, and he, like the rest, is reputed as one of the most powerful robots Wily ever created. His main torment in the public eye is being seen as "cute". His round cheeks, smaller build, and cigarette lighter shape almost always leaves those he meets with an underwhelming first impression, leaving Heat Man little choice but to start up his flames and start contradicting that notion as soon as possible.

After the robot museum was properly outfitted during MM3, Heat Man became one of the prime features of the place and stayed there until MM7, when he made his escape.

Over time he noticed that Wily was starting to lose his appreciation for Team 2. As powerful and intelligent as this group of robots was, Wily's sentiments only went so far. That, and Wily was always focused on the newest, biggest idea he had in his head. He didn't have time for projects "that couldn't help him defeat Mega Man". Heat Man mentioned this to the rest of the team, and they all agreed together that they were going to prove their worth to Dr. Wily by breaking into a science convention and stealing technology shortly after the failure of the MM10 scheme. This effort mostly failed, as all were captured and put into the the robot museum for their crimes. Their primary goal was, however, to impress Wily, and this they sort of did; as all the confusion was taking place in the attacked convention hall, Wily brought the Skull Capsule in to snatch some technology from the attending scientists.

Team 2 was freed from the museum during the events of Okkusenman, and since the last Skull Castle was destroyed, Team 2 gathered together, avoiding both capture by Mega Man and slavery to Dr. Cain. They worked constantly on plans to free their master from prison, but were only successful when Wily was transferred to different and more secure facilities. The irony was that the greater security made Team 2's plans easier, as it kept Wily more in solitude.

=====Toad Man

**"After rain comes, destruction!"**

Good point: Natural science

Bad point: Tone deaf

Likes: Long jump

Dislikes: Snake Man

I really like Toad Man. He's cute.

Anyway, Toad Man is of course a Cossack-bot. He, along with Bright, Dive, and Dust Man, was began by Dr. Cossack to benefit his household. As a biologist, Dr. Cossack wanted to make sure that his plants were well taken care of, and that was to be Toad Man's directive. Dr. Wily kidnapped Kalinka before he could finish, however, and Toad Man became evil temporarily as a part of the MM4 scheme. His rain became acid rain, and he was shoved off to the sewers.

Toad Man hated those sewers. He didn't like the mice in them, and he certainly didn't like that Snake Man kept creeping around before Mega Man got there. Thankfully, Dr. Wily found out and told Snake Man to stay away; this scheme was supposed to frame Dr. Cossack and he couldn't risk letting Mega Man see a Wily-bot.

Toad Man, however, was clearly not intended to be a fighter robot, as his fight with Mega Man proves beyond all doubt. Dr. Cossack was rushed through the construction of his eight robot masters, leaving Toad Man, the last one to be finished, with an extreme lack in ability. To make it even worse, some of the technology Dr. Wily used messed up Toad Man's battle A.I. and made it automatically reset every time he was shot.

Team 4's first stop after being defeated was the robot museum in Monstropolis. Dr. Cossack immediately protested this. Toad Man was among the first five he managed to get free from the museum's control through much aggravation and legal procedures. Pharoah Man, Skull Man, and Ring Man were the ones still legally in trouble, as Pharoah Man was the leader and Skull and Ring Man were Wily's ideas. They remained in museum custody until after MM7, and Toad Man did the best he could to earn money for Dr. Cossack so that the lawyers could get paid and the last three robots could return home.

The amphibian robot was very much delighted to be free from Dr. Wily, and does not look back on his evil days with any sort of sentimentality. He loves being away from the sewers, and he absolutely loves having gorgeous greenhouses full of flowers and plants while there's snow on the ground outside. He's a vital part of all of Dr. Cossack's experiments in biology. He gets along best with the three robots began at the same time as him, though since Dive Man is usually out of the lab and Dust Man is always in the junkyard, he talks mostly to Bright Man. He's a little afraid of Skull Man, but he's (mostly) sure that Skull Man would never do anything to hurt him.


	15. To Capture a Madman

Crystal Bot scrambled down those halls with all the scamper of a frightened rodent. Dub's orders were to take Roll through the open hatch of the communications lab down the hall, and that meant Crystal had to go a different direction to hopefully distract those chasing her from catching Roll. Unfortunately, this meant that she was wandering through caves and tunnels she didn't know. Epic Man hadn't exactly given her a tour.

Speaking of Epic Man, his growls were chasing her down through the tunnels of the cave. He wouldn't be far behind. Crystal Bot pulled out the laser gun Bass had given her, finally thankful for her training. She pushed her own lack of fighting ability to the back of her mind. Worrying wouldn't save her now. Figuring she might as well, Crystal Bot took a moment to jump into the air and cast crystal eye.

It was a lucky thing that she did. The four orbs all dispersed in different direction, but one of them caught a pair of watchful eyes, smacking the robot in the face. Two metal blades swooshed by her face and embedded themselves in the opposite cave wall. Crystal shuddered, stepping back. They were a mere two inches from being embedded in her eyes.

Crystal Bot didn't hang around to see what else was going on. Epic Man was getting closer, and she needed to hurry and find a way out.

_Okay...so I'm lost. I can't rely on being able to find a way out. If I attack, I'm underskilled and outnumbered. ...I hate these odds. _

Crystal Bot ran to the controls beside a pair of iron double doors. A quick dialing in of the password and the doors granted her an entrance. Inside this room was a large, rectangular bay, one that was larger than a small house. Given how the metal ceiling consisted of two long and probably retractible panels rather than the random downwards stone spikes of the rest of the cave-ish base, Crystal Bot guessed that this was some sort of enclosable landing bay for larger aircraft. It was currently empty, devoid of much of anything but a wall of computer stations on the left and an openable wall to the right.

_Sheesh, what did Cain design this base for anyway?_

That was as much thought as the girl-bot gave to that subject. She rushed around and get the door controls on the other side, frantically trying to get them shut behind her.

"Aaaugh!"

Crystal Bot thought she would die. Her systems screamed out in pain, and each program twisted around itself, warping functions that had nothing to do with its ordinary processes. Luckily, it was only a moment before they righted again, leaving a shaky Crystal Bot to wonder what had happened. Clutching her power core, Crystal swung her head around, trying to see what had happened. There was nothing around her, just the landing bay.

_Never mind. I have to get that door!_

Crystal Bot rushed over to the controls again, her fingers tapping at the panel with frantic speed. She had to get those doors closed if she wanted any chance of getting out of there. Much to her relief, it wasn't long before the doors once more began to close.

_**SNAP!**_

The ringing sound of a giant, midnight blue claw grabbing onto one of the rapidly closing doors made Crystal jump clear into the air. Epic Man grinned with monster eyes as he shoved the doors back into their open position.

"Oh no you don't!" Crystal Bot exclaimed, eyes narrowing as she snatched her laser gun from her dress. "You're not - aaaaah!"

This time she couldn't stop herself from falling to the floor, and her laser gun was lost somewhere amidst all the electrical, swirling confusion as all of her systems blinked off and on, getting everything wrong. It just wouldn't stop! The pain, the confusion, the programs working in the wrong way...if only she could think! With gladness she noticed that it was subsiding and her systems were righting themselves. They told her that she was lying on the floor. She opened her eyes. Her unhappy view was Epic Man's malicious face staring down at her. Only then did the girl-bot remember Epic Man's EMP attack.

"Does that hurt, Sweetie?" Epic Man knelt down beside her, his voice sizzling with scorn. "I certainly hope so. It's what you deserve for betraying the great Dr. Wily. What a fool you are. How can you be so close to the greatest mind in robotics and treat him that way?"

"You're...you're stupid!" Crystal Bot sputtered. "Dr. Wily doesn't like you! He just wants you to do as you're told!"

"I know." Epic Man said. "I don't mind at all. Robots are programmed to follow human orders, unfortunately. However, the good news is that I can follow my hero! He won't destroy us all, like that despicable Dr. Cain would. Why, I'll be a fine servant of a subdued Earth! And when Dr. Wily dies, I will have to listen to no one but myself! Until then, I'm following orders. It's time to shut you down now."

"No!" she screamed.

It was no good. As much as Crystal Bot tried to resist, her computeristic faults came into play. The Toad Man disease took full hold of her systems. This glitch was a flaw in battle A.I., that tried too hard to find the perfect response to any form of attack. Unfortunately, so many strategies and fighting arts were loaded into her CPU that all Crystal Bot could do was watch and tremble as Epic Man reached down for her neck.

_I've got to resist!_ Crystal Bot bit her lip tightly, denting her dermal plating. _I've got to respond...punch! Punch-punch-punch-punch-punch-punch-punch-PUNCH!"_

Crystal Bot's hand shot out, rocketing right at Epic Man's face - where Epic Man's hand snapped up and caught it. She gasped, but couldn't snatch her hand away. The grinning enemy's fingers crushed her hand. She could hear the supports in her hand snapping; there was nothing either Crystal Bot or her little whimpers could do to stop him.

"Keep the head." Metal Man's dark voice was always unsettling. From the shadows he came, becoming visible as he approached. "Wily will want to see the CPU."

"Haha!" Signal Man's voice rang out, and Crystal knew it was him even though he came up from behind. "Aw, she didn't get any better since last time I saw her fight. I was hoping she might be more of a challenge this time."

"This little thing? Please." Epic Man snorted and turned to Metal Man. "If you want the head, you come and get it off. You're the resident expert on cutting."

Metal Man said nothing, but his eyes gleamed first at the flattery and next at the fearful Crystal Bot. Before she knew it, Signal and Epic Man had her arms, and Epic Man pulled out a metal blade. He spun it on his fingers, letting the deadly edge flicker in the light as it neared the terrified girl-bot.

Crystal squinched her eyes tightly shut. _I...I'm going to die!_

_**Blam, blam, blam!**_

The noise drew everyone's attention to the left. Huge, pink electrical orbs flew towards them, and the male robots scattered. Faster than you could read this sentence, they slammed into Crystal Bot. Her built-in orbs flashed a brilliant pink, and she could feel her energy level...rising?

"What the hell?"

"Shoot him!"

"Hurry up!"

Crystal Bot wasn't sure which of the enemies around her said what; the pink glow that hit her dazzled her eyes. It took several seconds for the brightness to fade, and all the while she could see robots fleeing the wrath of several more plasma pellets. As Crystal Bot blinked, she saw their source, and she could have wept with joy. Bass turning and dashing to her side was the most wonderful thing she'd seen in a long time.

"Forgot that my crystal powered boosters restore your energy, huh?" Crystal's dark hero tugged her to her feet. "Up you go."

"Forte-kun!" Crystal Bot squealed. "You came for me!"

"Focus, Sonata." Before she knew it, Bass stuffed her laser gun in her hands and got behind her. "You've got to cover my back."

"Yay!" Crystal Bot could hardly contain herself. "I get to fight with Forte-kun!"

"Get him!" Epic Man said. "Don't let them get away - oh crap!"

"Oh crap" is a pretty appropriate thing to say when you get smacked in the face by three red stars. Before Signal Man could get a chance to help either of his allies, he flew up to the ceiling and down again. His traffic light arms turned red, ready to put a time freeze on and stop his enemies - that is, until Wave Man fired off his harpoon and hit him right through the face. Metal Man's weapon was powerful, but it wasn't much good for protecting him from the swirling gyro blades that surrounded him.

"Just kill him already, Sandwich Boy." Bass finished off Metal Man with a barrage of his pellets. "Don't be fancy."

"You're one to talk!" Gyro Man's main propellor slowed down and he landed with a huff. "You can't fight without trying to look like you're in some kind of action movie."

"Stop it now." Wave Man said. "Don't argue. We aren't finished here! Where's Epic Man?"

No one knew. The six robots looked around only to find empty landing bay and silence. Just in case, Crystal Bot nervously edged closer to Bass.

"He's not going to attack six robots." Bass shoved her away with a roll of his eyes. "He's not that stupid."

"I thought I had him!" Star Man pounded a fist into his other palm. "I did have him cornered."

"Star Crush must not be his weakness." Gravity Man turned down to the girl-bot edging his way. He gave her head a good pat with his huge hand. "Alright, now to business. You've got a lot to explain, young lady."

Despite herself, Crystal Bot almost giggled. She liked being called a young lady. All the same, the way the others' looks were saturated with not particularly patient attitude as they looked at her, she figured it might be best to remain serious.

"I'm really sorry, everyone!" Sonata clutched her hands with desperate insistence. "I really didn't mean to betray you! I was almost kidnapped, and if I didn't do something both me and Roll were gonna get torn up and our brains examined. There wasn't anything I could do but pretend to betray you guys."

"I like that." Bass folded his arms. "You _just happen_ to be in the _exact_ situation that would let you use the plan that I said no to. And you _just so happen _to be ready to carry out your plan without getting permanently reprogrammed by Dr. Cain."

"Um...yes?"

The robot burst into laughter. Crystal Bot stomped her foot. "I am too telling the truth! I just...I just wanted to be ready for the plan just in case."

"Ha ha, well, you can't be too altered. With you, pouting means honesty." Wave Man went up to her and stuck a wire to her neck, and the other end was hooked up to a handheld computer. "Now let me scan you. We can't risk this being a trick."

"We don't have much time." Bass said. "Sonata, what's the quickest way to shut down Cain's power?"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know!" Crystal Bot turned to her boss so fast she nearly tugged the wire out of her neck. "Dr. Cain isn't the big bad guy anymore. Dr. Wily showed up late yesterday and took over everything with Team 2. He caught me...oh! And he caught Roll! Dub and her are somewhere in the base!"

Bass wasn't overly concerned about his rival's sister, but losing her was a security risk. Letting her get captured by Dr. Wily, no less, was a severe blow to the dark robot's ego. Bass slowly bared his fangs at the thought of his old master, but his lips unbidden pulled into a grin. Now was the chance to take down the old man once and for all.

"What are we waiting for?" Gyro Man insisted. "Let's go get her!"

And off they went. Crystal Bot quickly put the hand-held computer in her hood to let it keep working as she led the others out. Much to Crystal Bot's annoyance, Algorhythm Man had thrown up his apparently very extensive anti-teleport, anti-communication field. However, it didn't stop her from tracking the narrow beam tracer she'd installed in Dub. As the team of robots went down the strangely empty cave halls, Crystal Bot found herself running beside her boss.

"Hey, Forte-kun," she said. "You didn't think I would ever really betray the best robot ever, huh?"

Bass was focusing on the task at hand, but he spared himself the time to wink in her direction, provoking from her a fit of giggles. He grinned. Not only did he have his technician back and the chance to defeat his old master, but now he was proven right, and Proto Man was wrong. Bass almost wished Blues was there so that he could gloat. Almost. If Proto Man was there, Bass grudgingly realized, then he would have to put up with him.

-t-

Dub was beyond lost. Dr. Cain's underground base was a maze to anyone unfamiliar, and Dub wasn't the smartest of mechaniloids. He had taken so many turns that he wasn't even sure how to get back to the main lab anymore - not that going back to Dr. Wily's location would help. For the moment, the cave halls of Cain had brought the spider-bot to a more or less round room of some sort (maybe it was supposed to be shaped like an octagon?), and in one wall was a lengthy landscape window outlooking the ocean. Dub tapped on the window with his claw. Nothing doing. It was at least three panels thick, robot-resistant to the highest degree. Moreover, it couldn't be opened; it wasn't designed to do so. Certainly, with considerable effort, it was possible to break through the window, but not nearly fast enough.

Oh yes, Dub knew he was being followed. He had watched the shadows, and he knew when one of them bore Shadow Man. Even while carrying Roll, Dub was a quicker robot, and light on his feet. He reckoned he had about two minutes, if he was lucky. The very first thing he did was set Roll down on the floor, holding her up in a more or less standing position with two of his claws. A third claw went to her mouth, and the fourth activated her.

Roll gasped as she woke. A fifth claw lifted up to Dub's face, one branch of it going up not unlike the symbol of shushing. Roll got the message, and Dub's claws pulled away from her. She had so many questions, but before she could ask even by comm, Dub was at least three feet higher. His legs extended out as far as they could go, and much to his relief they were long enough for him to be able to reach all of the walls. Understanding his mechaniloid code, Roll wasted no time and hurriedly sat down on his box-shaped body, letting him carry her as he shuffled up the walls.

In no time the clever Dub was up to the top, sprawled out and carefully keeping each limb secure on the walls. Roll had to duck as they neared the uneven cave ceiling, but the mechaniloid didn't go too far up to leave her smushed against it. That settled both robot silently waited and tried not to move.

They didn't have to wait long; Dub's assessment was correct. They didn't see him enter, but somehow, at the very same moment, Dub and Roll were both aware that Shadow Man was in the room. He left little impression in their vision, nothing more than a purple shadow even in the mild afternoon light still streaming through the panoramic window. Roll began to panic. She tried to calm down, fearing that somehow the ninja robot could detect even that. There didn't seem to be any way to get out of this room; had Shadow Man seen them enter it?

Whether he had or not didn't seem to matter. Roll wondered why she doubted him; of course Shadow Man would look up. And when he did, his eyes went directly through hers. That moment was frozen stiff as ice, and was the last thing Roll noticed before everything flung itself into disarray. She wasn't sure if Dub or Shadow Man had moved first, but either way, the air was filled with metal limbs and shadow blades, and Roll could see neither. A limb pulled her backwards and pulled her away from the brunt off the attack, flinging the dizzy girl-bot upside down.

Two _chuck-chuck _sounds echoed out just inches from Roll's head, two shadow blades blocked only by Dub's own body. A third blade whipped through Roll's hair, but more than that she wasn't able to see. Instead she finally slammed into the floor, whimpering and vainly thinking of the unsightly dent that was more than likely now in her nose.

It was a foolish way for her thoughts to go. Shadow Man was around her in a moment, as was one of Dub's legs. The thick metal arm wound tightly over her own arms, pinning them down. The mechaniloid weakly flung a claw over to free his caught limb, but Shadow Man was still faster. Roll could do little more than struggle as the ninja-bot circled the room once more, snapping another shadow blade full on at Dub's body and putting another round of the limb about the imprisoned girl. Shadow Man's aim was good; Dub didn't move again, but lay there exactly like the arachnid he was styled after: his legs crumpled up in a death as grim as only a spider could have.

Shadow Man seemed satisfied with his work. He relaxed slightly, not at all worried about the girl-bot in her makeshift bonds. Roll squinched her eyes, waiting for a shadow blade to get her in the neck. It didn't come. When she dared open her eyes, she found that Shadow Man was just walking towards her, stepping over one of Dub's arms.

"You...you're not going to kill me?"

"Hm?" Shadow Man glanced up at her, meeting her eyes in a very casual manner. "No. You're more useful to us unharmed."

If Shadow Man was trying to comfort her in some way, it didn't help. Roll tried to force the metal arm over her head and get free, but Shadow Man pulled on the arm - his grip was sure - and the girl-bot stumbled to a quick seated position. However calm Shadow Man was before, he roughly grabbed her shoulder and held it tightly. A whimper escaped Roll's lips, and she slumped, waiting for recapture.

"Damn!"

This was no mere curse. It was damnation itself. The black sound of his voice was a firm order to the deepest of pits, and the ground under Roll opened up, accepting the girl into its depths. All light disappeared; no window or lights from the nearest hall could reach through the black. Roll didn't need to breathe, but somehow she was being strangled as she fell, life itself left up and higher up above her. But Roll, no, she still continued to fall, mile after mile...

And then he was gone. Roll blinked, looking about her. She was still in that strange little round room with no apparent purpose, kneeling on the floor and gasping for breath. The rock walls were the same, and the landscape window was still there. Only Shadow Man was not. In her recovery Roll could only faintly hear footsteps coming toward her, and only the smallest part of her mind noticed that a set of these belonged to her now approaching brother.

"Roll!" he exclaimed, kneeling beside her and peeling away Dub's arm. "Are you alright?"

She blinked again, turning to the blue robot beside her. She wanted to smile, but her face lifted only a little. Her focus was taking its time returning, but soon enough she knew she was surrounded by Jewel Man and several members of Team 5. Finally the idea of "safe" settled into her CPU, and she began to feel a little better.

"I...I really don't like Shadow Man..." she said.

Mega Man winced, gently touching his sister's brow. "Yeah, he'll do that. Don't worry, it doesn't last. You'll be fine in a minute. Rest here a moment."

"As insensitive as this may be," Jewel Man's voice could hardly sound more sensitive or kind as he crouched on the other side of Roll. "But I'm going to need to scan you, dear."

"Please do!" Roll nodded with unnecessary emphasis. "The last thing I remember before coming to this room was being shut down so that Crystal Bot and Dr. Wily could reprogram me."

"Dr. Wily?" Napalm Man was shocked. "He's here?"

Roll looked up at the others. Now that her CPU was settled, she could see Napalm, Charge, and Stone Man. Everything made sense to her now. Shadow Man had detected them and run off. As powerful as he was, he couldn't beat her brother, much less her brother and four allies. Trying to remember what she was doing, Roll spoke and remembered her anger.

"Yes, he's here. He took over this base last night and he's forcing Dr. Cain to program viruses for him. A bunch of robot masters were making mechaniloids, and...and..." Here Roll quieted, hushing her voice as if to give the proper emphasis. "And Zero is here. He was in their lab...I think maybe the main one, when I last saw him."

"Good job, Roll." Rock smiled. "You poor thing. I'm sorry, I can't send you away now. Algorhythm-"

More footsteps coming down the hall. Mega Man stayed by his sister and charged his buster while the others scattered to the walls and readied their own weapons. Much to their relief, Bass was the one that ran up to them, followed by the rest of Team 5.

"Put that thing away before you hurt yourself." Bass growled at Rock.

"Crystal!" Jewel Man exclaimed, running to the girl-bot. "Please tell me you're alright!"

"I'm fine, _Ahbohjee._ Forte-kun took really good care of me! It's Roll I'm worried about...yay!" Crystal Bot approached her friend, fearfully eyeing the room for a moment. "I thought someone would get you for sure! But no, Grandpa was more angry at me. Poor Dub...he looks so terrible!"

Roll scowled, huddling closer to Rock. "You stay away from me!"

Crystal Bot started. "Oh no! Really, it's me this time. I'm sorry I said all of those mean things to you, Roll. I didn't mean them! I just had to lie and say that so Dr. Wily wouldn't think I was on your side. Don't look at me like that! It's only been like...I dunno, fifteen minutes since I deactivated you. Ha, you almost ruined everything. It was bad enough keeping me and Dub from being reprogrammed, but then I had to worry about you too!"

"Let me take a look here." Wave Man reached into Crystal Bot's hood and pulled out the handheld, still plugged into her neck. "Ah, yes, Crystal is running under normal operations. Besides, Roll, she was the one who sent us the signal to find this base. We're only here because of her."

Roll's face was still full of question, but she said nothing and just let Jewel Man set another handheld to her own neck. Crystal Bot bit her lip, but there wasn't anything she could do but let Jewel Man's scans prove that she hadn't done anything to Roll. She wanted to go and see what she could do about Dub, but Bass snatched her arm up.

"You've got the schematics for this base in your head, right? Give them to me so we can get going."

Mega Man rolled his eyes as Crystal Bot plugged her finger into the dark robot's neck. There was no need for Bass to say "we". Everyone knew how impatient he was to shoot something. Crystal Bot obediently loaded the information, only for Mega Man to approach her other arm.

"I'll take those as well." he said. "I wish the comm was up and working, but for now it'll have to be a direct connection. We'll have to do this as quickly as possible."

"I got it, I got it." the girl-bot huffed, plugging into his port as well. "You pass this along."

"Right." Mega Man nodded, firmly ignoring Crystal's ever present contempt for him. "Wave Man, is it alright with you that I take the Team 5 members that were with me before? I want to get going to the main lab to capture Wily as soon as possible."

"That's acceptable." Wave Man agreed, taking Bass' place and receiving the schematics for himself. "Once your upload is complete, you may go."

"Right. I'll hurry and give the schematics to them." Mega Man unplugged from Crystal. "Who's next?"

"And while you idiots are going right for Dr. Wily." Bass said. "I'll go to his ship and stop him when he escapes from you, like he does every single time. He's predictable as hell. See you guys when I catch him."

With that, Bass zoomed off. Wave Man shook his head at the dark robot, and even Mega Man glared in his direction as Bass dashed down the caveish hall and disappeared around the corner. Crystal Bot, seeing the others, tried to suppress her giggle. As much as his bravery impressed her, she wasn't immune to peer pressure - especially when that peer pressure is a huge, dissapproving Gravity Man staring down at her.

"What a jerk!" Gyro Man scoffed. "We're supposed to cooperate here!"

"Don't mind him. We can't control Bass no matter what we do." Wave Man sighed and turned his finger into a zip drive. "Here. As soon as I give you this information, you follow him. Gravity Man and Star, we will go together and serve as backup. Try to stay together as much as possible, and by all means, destroy Algorhythm Man and get our teleportation back up."

"Amen to that." Gravity Man said. "His anti-teleportation field makes my gravity feel off!"

Star Man just nodded in compliance as he and Gravity Man uploaded the schematics from Crystal - Mega Man's upload was complete, and he delivered the information to Charge Man and Napalm Man. Wave unplugged from Gyro Man and sent him away, then turned to the girl-bot of the team.

"Crystal, you will come along with us." Wave Man said. "It might be better for you to join the others and see what you can learn at the main lab, but I would rather that you took steps to avoid coming into contact with Wily. Even if he is at the landing bay instead of the lab, he'll be too busy escaping to trouble you. It's easy enough to send you back to the lab once Wily is gone."

The tech-bot's first action was to look over at Jewel Man, and her lip stuck out pitifully. Jewel Man winced, but approached her calmly and put a hand on her shoulder. "He's right, sweetheart. You had better go with him. I've got to keep these fellows out of trouble. Don't worry, I've survived this long as a fighter-bot. As ineloquent as this is, well, I can do the job!"

"_Haeng-oonuhl pimneedah_, _Abohjee_!" Through with her downloads, Crystal Bot through her arms around him. "Good luck!"

As this exchange went on, Roll sat quietly - until she noticed that the body of Dub was moving. It still had three very nasty Shadow Blades deeply embedded into the rectangular block, and yet somehow the thing was wiggling. Roll gently lifted it, being especially careful to not let her hands touch those awful shurikens. As she lifted Dub, bird tweets flickered out in a thank you and Bruce the pipi flew out. The little brown bird circled around (making sure to fly much too nearer to Mega Man than the blue bomber would have liked) and landed on Crystal Bot's shoulder.

"Bruce!" Crystal Bot patted his head. "Aw, poor baby. You had to spend that entire time merged with Dub. Thanks for helping him, Roll!"

"No problem." Roll smiled at the little pipi. "He's so cute!"

"My group." Wave Man's voice took on a more commanding tone. "Let's go!"

The four robots charged out of the room, leaving Roll sitting alone at the ruin of Dub. That reminded Mega Man of a problem he hadn't yet considered. He never had to fight while Roll was with him, and what to do with the girl now left him puzzled and worried. It would never do to wait until Algorhythm Man was destroyed, even assuming they knew where he was. Heck, it was even a bad idea just to stand there, wasting time pondering about it.

Fortunately, he had help this time. Charge Man rolled up to Roll, kneeling down beside her. "Roll-chan, why don't you hide in my storage compartment? It's not comfy, but I've got really great armor. A bad guy would probably kill me first before he could get it open."

Roll looked over to her brother, and Mega Man nodded with relief. "It's the safest place you can be right now. I'd take Dub with us too, but I'm afraid that would take too much time. Let's get you in there!"

Charge Man opened the hatch on his back, and Rock lifted Roll into the compartment. It wasn't much, just more or less an open area in charge Man's train hunchback, about big enough to hold three Rolls (all very uncomfortable). Roll sat at an inward corner, settling herself and smoothing out the edges of her dress. She couldn't help but feel very undignified, but she nonetheless smiled and waved at her brother, sitting calmly as he shut the hatch and left her in darkness.

Mega Man felt a twinge of guilt, but there was no time to ponder this. Napalm Man was finished giving the schematics of the cave base to Jewel and Stone Man, and now all were ready to go. Without a word they dashed off. Mega Man ran down the hall, letting Jewel Man and Napalm Man take up the rear. Charge Man was ahead of them. As much as Mega Man prefered the robot bearing Roll to be in the middle, Charge Man was better at leading the way. Stone Man ran along beside him, and he nodded with confidence as he saw Rock look at him. Mega Man grinned. There was no way Wily would win this time.

And so the heroes ran. It was a few minutes before anything happened, but it happened, sure enough. Rock silently ordered everyone to remain still and listen. He and his allies could hear the sounds of the enemies ahead of them talking and laughing. It wasn't by any means casual talking, and Mega Man tensed as he heard it. These were the sounds of robots threatening, seething under their breath and whispering their greed for violence. Heavy footfalls stomped into the floor, and a crackling, squealing thing sounded, possibly some parody of mirth. A thick, rumbing roar followed soon after, as well as the loud crackling of electronic energy.

"Of course!" Mega Man gasped. "They know we're here. They're coming!"

One set of laughter, more kooky than the rest, became louder as its source approached. So too did the intense crackling. A metal beam suddenly appeared around the corner, placing its end on the floor. It bent in the middle, and as it pulled the body of its robot, everyone could see that it was the bug-eyed, clown-bot himself, Psycho Man.

"Hello to you, my dear good friends!" he said, pulling his two floating hands apart before him. "I'll have a ball! You'll meet your ends!"

Between his hands a glow of electricity grew as he spoke, and the very instant he finished his rhyme, this orb exploded in light. Once it cleared, the good guys found themselves surrounded by several robots. Hard Man and Grenade Man cut off the path behind them, and Heat Man was eyeing Napalm Man with raging glee. Ice Man, Chill Man, and Signal Man joined Psycho up front, blocking the way to the lab.

"Ice Man?" Mega Man's eyes widened. "Wait, weren't you killed?"

"Dr. Cain was nice enough to rebuild me after you and the traitors destroyed the last Wily Castle." said the only robot in the world cuter than Mega Man. Even the way his eyebrows narrowed into a grimacing smile was totally adorable. "I guess I'll pay back the favor by destroying you!"

"Dr. Cain isn't so bad!" Chill Man agreed, lifting a fist. "He saved me as well! Cain's a great man, too! Imagine how much less pollution would be in the world if all of the robots were eliminated!"

"If that's the way you feel about it, then I'll fight!" Mega Man readied his buster. "I won't let you cause any more damage to anyone, even robots!"

One plasma shot into Ice Man's face started the battle. It was hard going, as the hallways were far too narrow for a grand battle. Jewel Man made sure to always keep a good field of diamonds around himself; the field prevented enemy shots from passing him in the narrow cave. That, however, meant that he and Napalm Man had to face down Hard, Heat, and Grenade alone.

"Good job, boys!" the beer keg robot said, beating his huge metal belly. "Heat Man, you do the honors with Napalm."

"Hee, hee, my pleasure!" The lighter-bot replied. "Ahaha, you don't know how much I've wanted to destroy you, Napalm! You're just so...so flammable!"

Heat Man immediately lit up. As the flames rose around him, Napalm Man had to try his hardest not to back away. He stuck a long white finger out, pointing at his enemy in meek determination.

"I...I won't let you win!" he tried in vain to boast. "You're not going to get the better of me!"

The Wily-bots laughed loud, and Napalm slumped. It didn't always affect him too much, but he indeed had Toad Man disease. If someone got to close to him, an error in his battle AI would only let him fire his napalm bombs, not his torpedoes. This ordinarily wouldn't be too bad, but napalm was a flame based weapon: it wouldn't do near as much damage to Heat Man as he wanted.

"Be careful!" Jewel Man looked behind him quickly to make sure his back was clear, then faced front again. "Stay behind me!"

Jewel Man quickly jumped ahead, engaging his shield and sending his jewel pieces flying. Heat Man and Grenade Man backed off, but unfortunately Hard Man was fine. The diamonds bounced off his armor like pebbles, and he grinned.

Grenade Man too was happy, and he smiled big. "That felt great! And now it's your turn!"

Grenade Man flung a bomb at Jewel Man, who barely in time engaged the jewel shield before the bomb hit. Even then he wasn't spared all of the blast's impact. The grenade shattered the jewels of his shield, and he fell back to one knee, covered in carbon scoring. Hard Man shot out a fist, and it smacked into Jewel Man before he could get his next shield up.

"Oh no, you don't!" Napalm Man yelled.

Three torpedoes flung themselves at the baddies. Grenade Man took a hard hit (which he thoroughly enjoyed - especially the lovely damage on his armor and the exposing of his inner core), but Heat Man was too quick. Spinning into a powerful flame, he reappeared before Napalm Man, and the purple robot felt his internal glitches go to work. It was nothing but napalm bombs for him; Heat Man was just too close! In fact, he was getting closer, and his napalm workings-

"Crap!" Napalm finally realized what Heat Man was trying to do. "You better not!"

Oh, but he did. Heat Man fired off his flames at Napalm Man's bombs, causing them to explode with flame inside the very robot that carried them. Napalm Man cried out, but the fire was lit, and it would slowly burn its way down his napalm conduits, a vein of fire that would lead all the way to his core.

The other side of the fight was no less dramatic. Stone Man did his best to fight the icy robots, but staying warm wasn't easy. Chill Man froze him in place, and only through firing his powerful stone shot could he get out of it, assuming Ice Man didn't shoot him first. Charge Man was too fast to freeze, but that didn't stop Chill Man from laying his spikes on the floor right in the way of the train-bot.

"Argh, it's so slippery! Let's see how you like coal!"

Charge Man fired off his coal buster at Chill Man trying to distract him. Chill Man was quicker. No sooner had Charge Man fired off the shots than Chill fired his own, freezing the coal and leaving it as nothing but a frosty chunk of stone.

"Not fair!"

Mega Man jumped behind the complaining orange-bot, ducking in to cover his back from Psycho Man's psycho pulse. "Ice and Chill Man are the two most powerful ice robots! You can't fight them with fire!"

"Rock, you gotta leave!" Stone Man jumped over two more ice blades from Ice Man. "The longer this takes, the more likely Wily will get out of here!"

"No, no, blue boy, you cannot go!" Psycho Man's glowing orb collar began to glow even brighter, turning a poisonous green. "You're lots of fun, and it's _my_ show!"

_Argh, I've got to do something! _

Mega Man's thoughts raced, and he searched his mind for a solution. It hit him, finally, just the same time that the psycho pulse did. Mega Man collapsed to the ground, but he was ready. Taking a risk, he dequipped his super armor and engaged the epic win. His powerful buster charged the weapon, then let loose his weapon's full power at the insane clown robot.

"Aaaww, my beautiful arms!"

It's a subjective matter of whether or not Psycho Man's arms were in any way beautiful (by which I mean to say they were not, unless you're an electrical engineer), but in any case Psycho Man had the right to complain. These two limbs fell off and dropped to the ground, and Psycho Man himself fell right off his skinny pole legs. Down he went in a heap.

"Go now!" Charge Man exclaimed. "Run for it! We'll catch up!"

"Thank you, everyone!" Mega Man shouted back.

"Where do you think you're going?" Chill Man exclaimed, jumping into the air. "Chill out!"

Chill Man flung a spray of his ice powers at the ground, trying to catch Mega Man before he slid away. He hit the wrong person. Mega Man got away scot-free, and his farthest reaching icicle hit Napalm Man instead. He froze into a blue icicle, staying that way until Stone Man managed to escape the wrath of the Team 1 cold-bot and smack his purple companion in the head.

"Whooo hooo!" Napalm Man lifted a now neither burning nor freezing arm into the air. "Thanks, friend! Wait, my hands...I can't engage them, my poor hands!"

Indeed the things were melted off. His entire forearms were black, and he wouldn't be firing bombs or converting to normal hands again. That only made Napalm Man angrier. Pinching Heat Man between his melted arms (holding the flaming heat guy certainly didn't help), Napalm Man flung him straight at Grenade Man. Grenade Man only had time to cry out "what bliss!" before he and Heat Man exploded.

Mega Man heard only noises. He didn't flinch. He had to keep running, and keep going. If he didn't catch Wily, then these sorts of incidents would only happen again. The brave hero was going to make sure, once and for all, that they stopped.

_You've got to be as tired of this as I am, Wily. I'm not going to let you do this to me anymore!_

-t-

Things weren't very eventful for the other half of Team 5 thus far. Bass was still too far ahead of them, but they caught up to Gyro Man. Their flyer-bot was caught up in a long hallway, trying to shoot through waves of Dr. Cain's blue electronic mechaniloids. They were little more than large metal balls with spikes on the top and bottom, but they way they crowded the air and sent waves of electricity sizzling up and down the spikes, they were really beginning to prove a challenge for Gyro Man alone.

Wave Man didn't need to give any orders. Crystal Bot shot out her crystal eye (which fortunately all went down towards the baddies and somehow missed Gyro) and Gravity Man fired his pellets.

"Hold your fire and stay away from the mechaniloids!" Wave Man ordered. "Gyro Man, retreat to our position. Star Man, you know what to do."

And he did. The very second that Gyro Man ducked in behind him, Star Man lifted his buster into the air. Instantly asteroids streaked down the hallway, clearing out several of the blue things. However, Star Man didn't have Toad Man's range, and there were still plenty more coming.

"Keep going forward!" Wave Man said. "Clear our way, Star Man!"

And so they charged, running through the hallway. Star Man managed to destroy the elec balls in front of them, but as they passed hallways fresh waves of the annoying mechaniloids appeared. Crystal Bot fired her laser down her side of the hall, and Gyro Man protected from the right. Many of the mechaniloids found themselves impaled by Wave Man's harpoons, and Gyro Man made sure none followed too close. It wasn't long before the group found a heavily encoded set of double doors. That was the end of the hall.

"We're getting closer!" Crystal Bot said, heading for the door and letting the others watch her back. "We have to go through the library here. This is the quickest way to get to the nearest hangar. There's more than one in this place, and I don't know which one Wily will use to escape, but there's a chance we're headed the right way! I've just got to work on these doors..."

"Let me open them." Star Man raised his arms to attack. "With my asteroids, I can break through the door-"

"No, silly space monkey!" Crystal Bot went past him and hooked into the keypad to the left of the door. "Let me hack. It won't take long. If we can get to the other side I can recode the doors to keep these guys from getting through. They don't exactly have arms or anything to get in and change it back themselves...and done! Go-go!"

The robots hastily went on through the door, Wave Man holding up the rear and sweeping away the mechaniloids that tried to get them. Finally, he jumped back behind the metal panels himself. Crystal Bot shut them behind him, encoding the door securely. That left the group in the rather nice library, very odd in a cave. Stalactites hung down from the immense ceiling, decorating the large number of bookshelves and nice green sofas in a strange, but not unhomey sort of way. Very nice metal standing lamps on each side of the sofas served as reading light.

"That was way too easy!" Gyro Man complained. "Isn't there anyone who can put up a real challenge?"

"I'm no genie, but I'll grant that wish!"

The group of good guys jumped each in every direction as all of them tried to evade the elec beam running towards them. Luckily for Star Man, it hit his shield and not him.

"Elec Man!" Crystal Bot's eyes immediately narrowed. "You stupid meanie-butt!"

"Charming as always, you Team 5 loser." The masked robot retorted, folding his arms. "We'll teach you some manners!"

By the "we" he obviously meant his Wily companions. Wood Man was there, looking as threatening as a robot made of wood was able. Nitro Man, a considerably more intimidating robot, rolled in beside him and turned back into human form, honking his horn in excitement. Solar Man was the most impressive of the bunch, and the fire coming out of his head burned a cheery bright color with a suprisingly nice smell coming off. Wood Man eyed him and edged away.

"Bubble Man?" Gravity Man blinked. "What are you doing out of the water?"

"I can fight on land, you know!" Bubble Man insisted. "I'm quite good."

"Um...are you sure?"

"Shut up!"

Elec Man turned to his fighters. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let's get them!"

The fight ensued, with Wave Man starting things off. His powerful water waves blew back Nitro Man, and Solar Man had to keep his head up if he wanted to save his flame. Gravity Man at once jumped to the ceiling, then jumped downwards, pulling Elec Man up to the roof.

"I'll take care of him!" Gravity Man growled, pointing at the stalactites. "You won't get away with insulting Team 5!"

That left Elec Man to figure out how in the world he was going to fight when he was constantly going up and down. A scared Crystal Bot tried to fight Wood Man with her laser, but his leaf shield blocked it.

"Not fair! How are leaves supposed to block laser? That's dumb!"

Wood Man wasn't concerned about fair. He neared her with a nasty grin, summoning his leaves. Fortunately, Star Man was keeping an eye on her, and he always wanted to fight Wood Man, shield-bot to shield-bot. He started running towards Wood Man, charging ahead. Leaves were summoned, and began to fall around them. At one touch, they took out the star crash and left Star Man open.

"Ha!" Wood Man scoffed. "I've got the strongest shield!"

To prove his point, Wood Man shot it off at Star Man. The space robot leaped over it gracefully, aiming his buster.

"And I've got a real gun."

Wood Man's mental circuit boards found themselves with a nice big hole in them. Getting an asteroid to the face will do that to you (if you are a robot, naturally - the human reaction is a bit too messy to describe). Wave Man was starting to make progress at weakening Nitro Man, and Crystal Bot managed to cover him and keep Solar Man at bay.

Bass hadn't fought the mechaniloids. The dark robot had dashed ahead of them, unknowingly activating them on the way to the nearest hangar. Bass didn't think about Wave Man or the others. He was going to keep going and make sure that Wily was stopped, and that meant checking on the five different hangars that Dr. Cain had in his base. Forte scowled to himself; he refused to believe that Mega Man could actually capture Wily. How many times had the mad doctor alluded the blue bomber in their history so far? Bass was going to destroy the Skull Capsule, and that was that.

_I wonder if Dr. Cain has any good books. Nah, he probably likes crap like that Rand broad. _Bass too had passed through the library. _Alright, so I turn right up here and the hall opens out. Then it's a left-_

"So you're finally here! Come on around. I've been waiting for you a long time!"

Bass stopped. He did a quick echo check, and figured out that the voice was coming from in front of him, past the corner. He readied his double busters. As he went right around the bend, he saw that the schematics in his head were correct. The hall did open up. Of course, the schematics didn't warn him that Algorhythm Man would be there waiting for him, hovering about in the middle of the air.

Bass looked around for more enemy robots. He saw none. "Eh, this'll be easy."

"Is that what you _really_ think, Bass?" Algorhythm Man asked haughtily, his grin just ever slightly too big to properly convey intimidation. He was too eager. "I'm ready for you this time. You're on my home turf!"

"Yeah, your home turf that was taken over by Wily." Bass readied his buster. "Honestly, what makes you think you can beat me? The first time I saw you I threw you down the side of a mountain. The next time you couldn't do much. Do you really think that you can beat me? Hell, I don't even get why you care so much."

"You don't get it?" Algorhythm Man exclaimed. "How could you possibly not understand? My master crafted an excellent plan to destroy Monstropolis, defeat Mega Man, and eliminate robots for good! If it weren't for you, he would have succeeded!"

"Echelon Man was created to stop Mega Man, right?" Bass was tempted to roll his eyes. "Rock kicked his tail. Cain's plan couldn't have been that good. The guy doesn't know what he's doing."

"Oh, shut up, shut up!" the orange robot almost screamed. "You're just a pathetic excuse for a hero! I will fight you and strike you down here and now! I will not let you humiliate my master any longer! I am the stronger robot, and you are just an outdated, fin-headed scrap of junk! I'll defeat you and prove it! Now, fight me! Or are you too afraid?"

As much as Bass wanted to fight, he paused, sickened. He had heard similar words before, and only now did it occur to him where: from his own mouth. For years he fought Mega Man again and again, never even thinking about giving up despite the fact that he'd lost every single time. Neither stolen technology, evil energy, nor whatever difficult fight Mega Man had had previously changed the outcome of the rivalry. Now Bass realized that he never thought about how pathetic that looked. Seeing the frustrated and uncomparably weak Algorhythm Man made everything perfectly clear. Algorhythm Man was a complete weakling, and an idiot to boot. Bass almost grew naseous. Had Rock thought the same thing about him? Was Bass just another loud mouthed enemy that Mega Man (shudder!) felt _sorry _for?

Bass definitely was feeling sick to his stomach. This question had been on the edge of his mind for years, but only now did he see it. He told himself that he was much more powerful than Algorhythm Man, and certainly more powerful than Rock, but the more he thought about it, the more pathetic he felt. Mega Man had shown him mercy time and time again. Bass thought he was fast enough to get away before being destroyed, but Mega Man had never chased him. As much as Bass told himself this had more to do with Mega wanting to destroy Wily and stop whatever scheme the madman was planning first, the excuse just seemed hollow.

"Here you are! Sneaking ahead of everyone just to stop Wily yourself, just like the glory-hog you are, huh? You're not the only one that can fight!"

Grumpy Bass glared back at Gyro Man, the room's newest arrival. As much as he wanted to say something vicious to the robot flying overhead, Algorhythm Man beat him to the punch.

"You stay out of this, you pathetic green fool!" Algorhythm hissed, his neon colors growing a little brighter. "Go down that right side hallway if you want to stop Dr. Wily so bad. Arrest him for all I care! Just mind your own business or wait your turn!"

"Wow, I'm supposed to be intimidated by _you_?" Gyro Man snapped, folding his arms. "You can't talk that way. Don't you remember the first person to defeat you? It was Proto Man, the oldest robot in existence. He was even suffering from power core problems."

"_He_ distracted me," Algorhythm really did scream this time as he pointed accusingly at Bass. "By blowing up my master's home! What was I supposed to do?"

"Great excuse, loser." Gyro Man snorted. "You still got defeated by a guy with a malfunctioning core."

Bass listened to this with mild impatience. He was thinking a lot more clearly now that his anger was starting to dissipate. The nearest hangar bay where the Skull Capsule might be was to the left, but Algorhythm Man had said to go right to find Wily. Was Al telling the truth? Bass glanced up at him, his face fouler for the subject he looked at. If Algorhythm Man was this pissed at him for...now what had he done again? Well, whatever it was, the neon-bot was probably equally bitter at Dr. Wily. Surely taking over Dr. Cain's base was at least as bad as whatever Algorhythm accused him of.

_Hell, Wily better not have escaped while I was talking to these idiots._ Bass though. _Hm. When I was fighting Rock, what's the number one thing he could have done to piss me off?_

Bass knew exactly what that was. He involuntarily gritted his teeth, forcing himself to go on. He yelled up at Gyro Man.

"Hey Sandwich Boy. Hurry up and kill this guy so we can get the teleporters working."

"What, really?" Gyro Man said, genuinely surprised. "You don't want to fight him?"

"Nah, he sucks. Just hurry up, already."

"Wait, where are you going?" Algorhythm Man's glowing panels glowed faster. "Come back here! You're _my _rival, you have to fight _me_! Fish! Fish...Bass! BASS!"

Bass didn't even look at him. Thankfully Gyro Man attacked, ending Algorhythm Man's annoying yells and beginning an even noiser fight. Forte grinned to himself, gambling and betting on the right hallway. He compared this to the scematics in his head, he noted that there was another hangar in that direction, further away from his current location. It was worth a shot. Besides, Gyro Man would destroy Algorhythm Man soon (Bass didn't doubt Gyro could do it - Algorythm Man was hardly a worthy opponent, he thought) and then he would be able to teleport away if he was wrong.

-t-

As all of this was going on, Mega Man sped for the lab. He knew where to go in the vast cave base, but getting in there was proving difficult. Besides the tellies in the way, hacking into the lab door gave him trouble. Dr. Cain wasn't like Wily; each room of his base wasn't a death trap where he was allowed right inside in the hopes that something there would destroy him.

Mega Man almost panicked. It had been so long since he had been a lab assistant that his knowledge of security systems was outdated. He simply didn't understand what was going on with it anymore. Fortunately, Auto certainly did, and the hacking programs installed in Mega Man seemed to do the trick. The metal doors slid to the side, allowing him entrance.

The place was a mess. Scattered tellie parts lay all over tables and along the floor, especially at the far side of the room. Tools were scattered as well, and much of the computers were smashed in. At the larger computer panel lay Dr. Cain, sprawled out on the floor under a computer chair with a little blood trailing down the side of his ear.

"Oh no! Dr. Cain!"

Mega Man was quick to rush to his side. He lifted the chair and tossed it aside, then winced, wishing he could call Roll. Still, he was a model that could detect vibrations, and it was fairly easy to see that Cain was still breathing. Whoever did this to him was in a hurry, not trying to kill him but get him out of the way. Rock tried to remember the first aid Roll taught him. The best thing to do in this case was to make sure not to move Dr. Cain, just in case of spinal damage, and try to contact some assistance from the outside. Mega Man went to the nearest unsmashed monitor, hoping that the base had some sort of land line for emergencies.

"Come on, come on!" Mega Man whispered. "Please work!"

It did. The monitor blinked to life. At once Mega Man's merry reaction face melted away into horror. It didn't take a computer geek to tell that numbers going backwards down to zero was not a good omen.

"A self-destruct function? On the base?" Mega Man frantically started typing at the computer. "Gah! It won't let me through! I don't know how to shut this down!"

That didn't stop Mega Man from trying. He focused his computer mind on doing as many calculations as possible, trying to figure out what the emergency shut down passcode was. He typed in possibility after possiblity, but nothing worked.

_And I can't tell the others to get out of here! They couldn't get out of here even if I warned them!_ Mega Man angrily smacked at the console. _They're all in danger! _

Mega Man wished then with more strength than he had yet before that he was a lab robot again. Auto would know how to shut it down or at least slow it down, but not him. Not Mega Man, the fighter robot, the "great hero". That hero was helpless before the face of advanced technology.

The sound of gasping alerted Mega Man that Dr. Cain was waking up. He rolled over onto his back, trying to speak.

"Try not to move, doctor." Mega Man's fingers typed with greater speed. "I've got to shut down the self-destruct function on your base. What's the password? Did Wily change it?"

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Cain moaned as he slowly pulled himself up to his feet. "I don't have that on my base. I'm not stupid. What good would blowing up my life's work do?"

Mega Man paused, his hands still hanging above the keyboard. "Wait, then what's this?"

Dr. Cain pushed Mega Man aside lightly, still feeling odd as he leaned over the keyboard. He rubbed his aching head and pushed a few buttons before answering.

"This looks like a mask program." Cain said, still rubbing his skull. "It's just there to make you think that the base is going to blow up. When the timer gets to zero it just starts over again, and it always says 'incorrect password' no matter what you type into it."

Mega Man felt a little stupid, and his spirits sank. He did know about mask programs. They were just a cheap trick to scare the unwary. His lip turned down as his expression soured. For the moment, he just sighed and pulled Cain's hand away from his head. From the way it was bleeding, Mega Man guessed that Dr. Cain's head needed to be left alone. He pulled up the nearby chair and let the scientist wearily plop into it.

"Ah, thank you." An exhausted Dr. Cain complied with Rock's silent order, and left his hands on his lap. "Don't feel too bad. You're just a robot. Mask programs would even fool humans. Don't expect too much of yourself."

While normally Mega Man wasn't a proud robot, he did feel a twinge of ego here. After all, he had saved the world ten times, and Monstropolis more so. What right did Dr. Cain have to imply he was stupid? But Rock let it go. He wasn't like Bass; he could ignore casual insults. Besides, he felt a little sorry for Dr. Cain, anyway. He wasn't entirely sure Dr. Cain was fully aware of his surroundings. The human blinked a lot, his voice little more than a dull moan when he did bother to speak. Cain was totally worn out, and from his limp shoulders and careless slumping over the arms of the chair, it was pretty clear he wouldn't be resisting.

Mega Man had left the doors open, so he knew right away when Charge Man, Napalm, Jewel, and Stone Man entered the room. Stone Man looked cracked - the chill had done him no good - and Charge and Jewel looked roughed up, but Napalm Man's burned arms were by far the worst of it.

"Charge Man." Mega Man said. "Let Roll out of your compartment. She needs to take a look at Dr. Cain."

"Right!"

Charge Man turned and lowered, popping open the back panel of his train back. Out came Roll, disheveled and showing off a new, poofy, and rather ugly hairstyle. Stone Man helped her step down to the floor. Roll quickly ran a hair through her blonde locks, wincing. She didn't have to see it to guess how it looked.

"I'm glad I'm not human." she said, straighting out her dress. "If I were then I would be sick!"

"Um, sorry, Roll!"

"It's okay, Charge Man. I know how battles can be." She pushed his panel back into place and patted him on the back. "It was the safest place for me, anyway. Okay, now where's my patient?"

Dr. Cain was actually a bit surprised that Roll didn't mind helping him. She went right up to him, casually looking him over and cringing at the sight of his head. Cain widened his eyebrows, but after an initial reluctance just gave in and scooted up a bit in the chair, letting Roll get a clear look. She pulled a nice frilly handkerchief out of her pocket and patted at some of the blood.

"This looks ugly." Roll said as she carefully wiped a bit from his ear. "But it's not really that bad. Minor concussion though. We'll have to bring you to a hospital as soon as it's safe to leave."

"Right, I guess that will be fine." Cain sighed. "I'm not going anywhere now, that's for sure."

"You're going to be under arrest." Mega Man warned. "As much as I feel sorry for you, I'm not going to let you go. Your next stop after the hospital is prison."

"That's fine." Cain blinked, still a bit out of it. He took in a deep breath, closing his eyes. "I suppose it's just as well. Better than being Dr. Wily's slave. I won't try to break out again, I promise that. I'm done. This means I'll have to give up on freeing society from you metal fellows. I suppose it won't work so well if no one else feels the same way I do."

"I'm really glad you're saying that." Roll said, her voice taking on its typical lecture tone with the full output of her extended finger. Rock smiled at it, thankfully it was aimed at someone besides him. "Don't you ever do any sort of scheme like that again! A lot of people's lives can be changed by one person's attitude, so you better watch yourself and behave from now on! My brother's got his eye on you!"

Dr. Cain, though his injury made him far more agreeable, frowned at this. "Ow. Don't you boss me, metal girl. If you're going to tell me something, tell me this: what was that you said earlier about programming viruses for Wily? How did you know his plan? And why were you saying all that nonsense about Gemini Man?"

Mega Man pricked up his ears. Roll hadn't told him anything. Equally curious, he walked closer to Roll. She startled as he approached, almost jumping. Trying not to look into her brother's eyes, she steered her gaze over to Cain - let him think she was weird, not Rock.

"I...um, Proto Man was investigating around." Roll explained. She tried to look calm as she spoke. "ArmorCore Anti-virus looked a little weird to him, so he wanted to check it out. He didn't actually find anything yet, or if he did, I'm not sure. I just guessed that Dr. Wily had something to do with it. I said it in front of him to see if I was right."

Mega Man looked at her strangely. "Proto Man didn't tell me about that."

Roll's innocent eyes turned to her brother, and she shrugged. "Well, he only told me because I asked. He wasn't sure there was anything to make of it, yet."

"Well, there must certainly be something to make of it now." Cain snorted. "Wily couldn't make a poker face to save his life. What you said really struck a nerve."

"We'll talk about this later, hopefully with Proto Man around." Mega Man eyed the scientist with distrust. "Right now we've got to focus on the task at hand. I sure hope Bass and everyone else found the the Wily capsule. It's clear Wily's been gone from this laboratory for a while. Napalm Man, are you okay?"

"My poor hands..." the purple robot sighed. "I just hope they can be repaired. I'm burnt up pretty bad, Rock. I can still fire torpedoes, but I don't know how good I'll be for fighting."

"It's okay. You stay here. Charge Man and Stone Man, you also stay with Roll and Dr. Cain. Have him get the masking program off the computer and show you what he was doing on his computer before we got here. Jewel Man, we'll try to make it to the others, if we can. Wait, I'm getting a transmission!"

_" - Hey Mega, I just destroyed Algorhythm Man. - " _Gyro Man's voice sounded over the line. _ " - Teleportation is back up! - "_

"Great!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Did everyone hear that?"

_" - We did! - "_ Wave Man was equally excited. _" - Let's get to those ships and cut off the escape! - "_

"I'll go first." Rock said to Jewel Man. "I'll teleport around and try to find which hangar has the Skull Capsule. Be just a minute!"

The first try was lucky. Mega Man landed in what turned out to be the right landing bay. Aside from two gold and green hover jets (obviously Dr. Cain's vessels), the blue bomber was rewarded with the Skull Capsule, the top hatch open as Crash and Quick Man lifted a limp Zero inside. However, Mega Man's teleport was not silent, and everyone froze at the sight of him. Well, for about a millisecond, anyway.

"It's Mega Man!" Quick Man threw Zero's legs into the capsule and jumped down to the floor. "Let's get him!"

"Be careful with my robot!" Wily yelled.

No one paid much mind. Even as the red-faced scientist screamed, several more robots popped out from nowhere. Quick Man was quick, but Bullet Man made the first hit. He swooped down against Mega Man, slamming him into a wall. Two boomerangs shot out, one of which caught Mega Man across the helmet before embedding into the wall.

"Crash Bomb!" The corresponding Team 2 robot cheered, not realizing Bullet Man was still in the way. Thinking fast, Mega Man kicked Bullet Man in the chest - the crash bomb hit him in the back. By the time the smoke cleared, Rock was well out of harm's way - other than having to jump over several orange tops, that is.

"Someone kill him already!"

There was no need for Wily to give this order. Alreadly Flash and Frantic Man were headed for the blue bomber. A hurtling fully charged blast slammed right into Flash Man before the bright stopper was unleashed. That, however, left Mega Man open to the shooting clown arm heading right for him. Frantic Man snatched him up by the neck, slamming him twice to the ground.

_Boy do I feel ridiculous..._ Mega Man activated his comm. _" - Everyone! Meet at my coordinates! - "_

Mega Man equipped the power bullet, firing away at Frantic Man. He couldn't see the hit, but the clown arm whipped away from his neck, much to his relief. That left Rock surrounded by Crash, Bullet, Quick, Flash, and even Top Man - probably a recovered victim of Dr. Cain's reprogramming. Not for long was the hero surrounded. Several teleport lines streaked down from the cave ceiling, and one by one Rocks' allies appeared. The black and gold teleport beam was the first.

"How the hell did you get here before me?" Bass thundered at Mega Man.

Mega Man didn't have time to answer. Quick Man was after him, and even with Gyro Man's help he was proving hart to hit. Star Man and Wave Man stated to take advantage of Crash Man, but with a sudden flash everything stopped. Only Jewel Man's late appeareance saved the good guys - his jewels shattered though Flash Man's shimmering armor and put an end to the bright stopper. Though not fast enough to save Star Man. A lighting black streak lammed right into his head, piercing directly into his forehead.

"Star Man!" Crystal Bot cried out.

Gravity Man said nothing, but he knew what he had to do. Spotting Sight Man idinging among the Cain aircraft, he activated his gravity powers, slamming Sight Man against the stalactities. Wave Man's harpoon snagged Bullet Man as Wave Man covered his team member's back. Bullet Man was not pleased. Ripping the harpoon out of his armor, Bullet Man jumped into the air and swept the room with his lasers, throwing out a triple shot at Wave Man for good measure. Beore he knew it, he was being showered with a rain of upwards plasma pellets. He turned to find himself face to face with a double-jumping Forte. That was the end of him.

As smug Bass landed confidently, grinnning as the pieces of burning Bullet Man decorated the air and floor around him. This merriment was interrupted by someone else's. Crystal Bot's. For no reason her boss could think of, CB was dancing with Top Man as the latter hummed a fine waltz.

"Sonata...what the _hell?_"

Top Man led his partner near Bass, smirking as he twirled the giggleing girl-bot around. Sonata stuck her tongue out at him.

"Top Man is nice." she replied cooly. "And since you were a meanie back at the ball, I wanna dance with him."

"He didn't dance with you?" Top Man gave her another spin. "Of course not. He's just trying to cover up the fact that he's a clumsy oaf on the dance floor and isn't good at anything not involving guns. He couldn't stand to make a fool of himself."

If stray shots from Crash Man didn't distract him, Bass would have face palmed - or at least shot Top Man to death. As he went after the Team 2 robot, he yelled over his shoulder. "Just kill the guy before Jewel Man sees you."

"Aw, that's right. _Ahbohjee_ wouldn't like this." Crystal Bot pouted with a good dose of lower lip.

Top Man laughed, not at all dismayed. "Well, yes, we are enemies. We really should be fighting. It's just too bad isn't it?"

"Sure is!"

Crystal Bot flashed with a blink of her orbs. He was too close; he found the shiny blue crystal she generaled firmly embedded in his chest. As he plunked to the ground, Crystal Bot clapped, squeaky with satisfactory glee.

"So I can create a crystal if someone's in the way. Yay!"

There was little time for musings. Espeically not for Mega Man. It was always so tedious to fight Crash Man, especially since the touch robot wasn't vulnerable to either of Rock's Cain powers. Still he defeated Crash Man just in time to see a new offensive.

"Tellies!" Mega shouted above the din. "Heads up everybody."

These mechaniloids were not tough, but there were plenty of them: the robots had done their work well. Weapons went out, aiming at the tellies and blasting them away...and yet their numbers only grew the stronger. Mega Man fired off his shots, not bothering to charge them (and finding himself a little jealous of Bass)

_Ther's just too many of tehse guys! And they really are pretty distracting..."_

Not quite distracting enough. In an instant Mega Man hopped around and fired a half-charged shot at Sight Man, saved from Gravity Man's wrath by the mechaniloids.

"Good try, but I'm too used to fighting Shadow Man." Mega Man charged this buster.

"Maybe I can't sneak up on you..." Sight Man brought his cannon to his shoulder. "So let's see how good your armor really is!"

Sight Man fired of three of his maddening shots. They wizzed by Mega Man's head, whilsting like gallows birds as they passed by. A fouth slammed into Mega Man's chest, ripping off a plat of shoulder armor as it deactivated his charge. This didn't stop Rock from sliding in, kicking out Sight Man's cannon and beginning an intense fistfight. Not even a blow straight to the chin could topple our blue hero, and it wasn't long before he kicked Sight Man back. Equipping the power bullet again, he fired it point blank.

Really, it was too much for any robot, and moreover Sight Man's defenses were neither top-notch or in perfect condition. The ant-bot shattered, limbs flying. Mega Man didn't enjoy violence, but even if he did he couldn't watch Sight Man's demise: he was interrupted by a quieter noise but one far more recognisable: the slow groaning of the Skull Capsule as it began to close.

"Wily's getting away!" Mega Man charged to the capsule. "Bass!"

"Coming!" Bass growled, dashing in. "Get under there and kill the propulsion engines!"

Mega Man tried to go for the capsule and stop the closing procedure (he'd rather face Wily and try to do as little damage to the human as possible), but as Wily's rapidly wriggling eyebrows told him, he had no time. As the blue half steadily lowered onto the grey, Mega Man could feel his heart sink. Wily laughed loudly before making an equally loud demand. Out of the capsule a magnificent teal blur hit Mega Man, smacking him against the floor. All that filled rock's eyes was teeth, claws, and a pair of eyes that'd bite you like a viper. He could barely push off the frantic paw in time to see that it was Demi, Cain's (and apparently now Wily's) miniature robot assistant.

Mega Man Tossed the little guy aside, trying to fire down at the bottom of the iconic shop, now firmly closed. Anticipating more tiny claws coming up from behind, Mega Man fired back a few rounds. Only as he finally turned to look did he see the sheer number of tellies coming out against him. How many of these things did Wily have the chance to produce?

"I need back up!" Rock yelled.

"Right behind you!" Gravity Man sent Demi flying up in the air. "I'll cover you, but power doesn't work on tellies."

"Rock, you under there yet, or what?" Bass snarled from the top of the capsule. "Nothing up here makes it stop!"

Times like these Mega Man really wished that Bass could slide. But with no more complaint that a quick grunt, Mega Man slight right under the Skull Capsule, firing away.

Inside the thing, Wily's laugh bounced around the metal walls of the vessel as he worked the controls. The six flat screen monitors hanging above the buttons and levers displayed the outside world, and Wily hadn't missed Mega Man's attempt at stopping him.

"Buahaha!' Wily couldn't stop laughing. "Fool! Mega Man went right under my thrusters! All I have to do is lift off, and _phwoom!_ Mega Man is fried! Buahahaha...wait, why isn't this working? What did Cain do to my ship?"

Wily slapped the console, forcing his wrinkled hands against a bare part of the panel with a _whap!_ Wily reached to his right. Over there would be the panel hiding the manual emergency thruster. It was meant to lift up the ship come hell or high water. His hands knew the passcode for the security panel without consuling his brain, so it came as quite a surprise when his hand didn't make it there. It was neither hell nor high water opposing him, as turning revealed. It was instead Proto Man, and now the red and grey robot had Wily securely by the wrist.

The grinning stealth-bot plopped his feet right atop the controls, sitting in the extra chair like he owed the place. And he wouldn't stop smirking! But even this enfuriating face didn't distract Wily from the reality of the situation for long: Proto Man's thick legs had no affect on the machine, even though they rested on important buttons, nothing happened. The capsule controls were blocked.

"No!" Wily screamed (which was really annoying in that confined space). "You can't do this, you stupid robot!"

Proto Man said nothing. He simply reached over to a horizontal lever at his waist with his free hand. Sliding it to the right, Proto Man released the lock, and slowly the upper half once again gently headed for a higher position. This lifted just in him for Wily to see an burning spurt of plasma explode from underneath them, rocking the ship.

"My fuel lines!" Wily wasn't going to stop his screaming yet. "Stop destroying my Skull Capsule!"

"Relax." Proto Man felt a little cocky as he stepped on the rim of the ship. The panel was open enough, so he tugged Wily upwards as he lifted to his full, though not particularly impressive height. "It's not like it was going anywhere anyway."

"_Proto_ Man?" Bass spat as he jumped off the top half. "How the hell did you get here? And before me _and_ Rock? What the hell?"

"Simple." Mr. Cocky Man replied, dragging the mad scientist along with him on his mission to gloat. "I'm _Proto Man_. Now here you are. I'll let you hold on to him until the police come."

As much as Proto Man enjoyed the look on Bass' face, he knew it was a good strategy to shove Wily toward the one person most guaranteed to not let the old man out of his sight. That done (and Bass still glaring), Proto Man contently patted the side of the now blackened Skull Capsule, reaching under it for his brother, who was only the more dirty for the wear.

"Hey Rock, we got him."

"Oh good." Mega Man let his brother pull him to his feet. "Well, the engine is definitely done for. I shot up the fuel lines, and there isn't much left of the propulsion thrusters. No one's going to be flying this thing again."

Things were settling down. Most of the tellies were cleared out. . Gyro Man landed back on the ground, satisfied that the others could finish off the stragglers. The propellor-bot went past the winged Cain ship to go and find Star Man. They hadn't had time to check him over and make sure that he was able to be repaired, so he would wanted to make sure the space-bot was okay.

_And to think there was a time when I couldn't stand my team. _Gyro Man chuckled. _This good guy thing really is getting to me._

The chuckle died in his throat as he approached the fallen. Kneeling at Star Man's body was Frantic Man. His long clown arm was picking over Star Man's armor, particularly at the hole in his cranium. He had already removed what remained of Star Man's helmet (the Team 5 bot had some nice brown hair) and was attempting to remove his forehead panel. Instantly Gyro Man's blade shooter was out, and his growl alerted Frantic Man.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Gyro Man was firm. "Get away from him! Now!"

Frantic Man was still a moment, with one hand frozen over Star Man's head. He dropped his hand slowly, staring at the threatening Gyro Man in his usual, expressionless way. Then he got to his feet, not saying so much as a "bleep" or a "zzt". He just stared at Gyro Man a moment longer. With that, he disappeared into the air, an ugly, multicolored beam shooting up in the air.

"Darn!" Gyro Man exclaimed. "I should've shot him! Gravity Man! Get over here and check on Star! I think Frantic Man messed with his head!"

Gravity Man hurried over, and Mega Man watched the scene, hoping for the best. However, his noisy captive wasn't going to let his attention stray for long.

"My beautiful capsule!" Wily tugged uselessly against Bass' grip. "You'll pay for this, Mega Man!"

"Yes, yes, just like every other time." Mega Man's smile was cute no matter how dirty it was. He shook his head with a chuckling sigh. "Really, Dr. Wily, this is beneath you. There's no need to threaten us. We've been going at this too long, and we should be frank with one another. No needless posturing. Hey Blues, you wouldn't have an extra rag, would you?"

"Sorry, Bro."

"Well, it's not my fault then." Mega Man grinned. "I'll have to go home like this, and Roll will just have to deal with it."

Blues chuckled. "At least wipe your feet at the door."

All this infuriated Wily. How dare they talk about something so trivial, when he, the master criminal, was caught? Didn't they fear him? Hate him? _Something_?

"Fools!" Wily pulled against Bass with surprising force - namely enough force to produce a snarky grin from his turncoat creation.

"Chill out, Old Man." Bass spoke with almost a mild affection. The casual feelings in the air were catching. "Just relax."

"I most certainly will not! Shadow Man! My servants! Come to me and free me!"

There was no response. Instead, Wily found himself beginning to be surrounded by his enemies. Except for Gravity Man, who remained down by Star Man's side, Jewel Man and Team 5 all found themselves gathering around Dr. Wily. Each of them curiously neared the former master, uncertain of what to do. The three main heroes were relaxed, so they tried to do the same. Wave Man was the boldest of the oncomers, and he approached Bass with a confident nod: mission accomplished.

And it was accomplished. Not so much as a tellie popped up to defend the madman. The servants that had manufactured these for him were all gone, both his robots and the ones he forced into service (though Mega Man honestly wondered how loyal Cain robots could be to Wily).

"Got him?" Gyro Man asked, still in a rush of ego. "Hey, and we've even got Zero! This is great!"

"Our work isn't done yet." Wave Man said. "I contacted the authorities. We still have to inspect this place and try to determine if any danger still remains in this building."

"_I'm _dangerous!" Wily shrieked. "You can't underestimate me! I always have a way...a way..."

Wily started to shake. Bass grasped him even tighter, not for one moment letting Wily try to give him the slip. The others were less suspicious, and as Forte tried to lift his creator up, he noticed how wide everyone's eyes were. Confused, Bass still held on. Again, Wily melted downwards, still wheezing and trying to speak. No words came out, probably thankfully. The others could see what was going on better. Wily's face was red and furious only a moment ago, and now he was pale. Each wrinkle seemed deeper than before, and what faded color remained in his eyes disappeared.

"I'll...I'll get a chair..." Gyro Man spluttered, backing away with his head swinging back and forth in the search. "There's no chair in here!"

"Teleport to the main lab!" Wave Man ordered, moving by Wily to get a better look. "Get a chair from there."

"And bring Roll with you!" Mega Man added.

"Right!"

Gyro Man teleported out, leaving the rest of the haunted souls. Team 5 was affected the most. They were good guys, and yet they were looking at their creator gasp for breath like the air was being sucked away. Wave Man could disguise his confusion easily, but Gravity Man couldn't. The maroon robot left Star Man to see what was going on, only to find that his emotion had created a forcefield he couldn't pass. Crystal Bot trembled, unable to move from the spot her feet were planted. Jewel Man walked up behind her, and upon noticing him she grabbed his arm for support.

Of all the robots, only Jewel Man remained contemptful enough to sneer at the weakened human, and strangely enough that counted Bass. The black and gold robot felt very weird about all of this. He finally let Wily get down on the ground (making him stand was like balancing a wet noodle on its end) but still kept him in a sitting position.

"I don't get it." Bass finally said. "He's faking this...right?"

Bass knew nothing about health, but even he was beginning to get the feeling that something wasn't right. If nothing else, Mega Man's face was a clue. The blue bomber had seen lots of Wily tricks, and he'd been tricked before. As much as he felt like Wily could be fooling him again...it just didn't seem like it. Whatever was going on in that shaking body of his, Wily grew more foul as Mega Man approached, and he spat. The saliva spray didn't reach more than Rock's feet.

"Behave." Bass ordered, gently hitting (tapping, really) Wily on the arm. "And sit still."

"Shut up!" the doctor managed a rough growl.

The green and white teleportation beam of Gyro Man, accompanied by the red and white of Roll, hit the ground. As ordered, Gyro Man had a chair, and Bass and Wave Man quickly got Wily up on it. The rest of the robots immediately cleared the way, allowing Roll a straight path to Dr. Wily.

"Well?" Gyro Man asked. "What's wrong with him? Is he faking this?"

Roll said nothing. All Gyro Man had told her when he brought her there was that it was an emergency; only now did she see that it was none of ther than Albert Wiily that was in medical danger. And so she stood. Wily didn't look up at her. Whatever was going on with him, it was getting worse. He could no longer do as much as grimace at the robots around him, and his chest struggled to pull in air. He couldn't do more than look up at his feet. And still Roll stood there.

Her eyes flitted to Gyro Man, dark as a bat. "No. He's not faking. He appears to have something wrong with his heart."

"Well, then get over here and do something." Bass snapped. "He's dying, and good guys _help_, apparently."

Mega Man paused. He hardly noticed as his eyes narrowed. As much as he wanted to insist that his sister act, he noticed something in her - not that it was particularly difficult to see. Hate was scribbled all over her face, and the more she stared at the scientist, the more it grew, like black marker on every gentle feature. When Roll faced him, Mega Man almost recoiled. She knew without him saying anything that Rock wanted her to help. And she despised him for it. But finally she eased up, and with darkness in her voice she answered Bass.

"I don't care."

Emphasizing her point, Roll snapped around, walking away and stunning everyone in the process. Mega Man immediately marched after her, grabbing her arm even as she tried to load in teleport coordinates for the lab. Roll at first refused to look at him, but as Mega Man tugged her more forcefully she rewarded his effort with a nasty stare, her eyes stabbing at his.

_" - Roll, - "_ Mega Man was angry, but he was sure to encode his transmission. _" - I know better than you what Wily's done, but- - "_

"No you don't!" Roll screamed aloud, trying to rip her arm out of his grasp. "You don't have any clue what this man did to the future! You don't even have the slightest clue of what he's capable of? He's tried to kill us again and again, and every time you stop him he only tries again! Why should we help him? Why don't we just let him die already? What good does it do to let him live another day?"

If the room grew any more tense, then a black hole would form, surely dooming the earth into whatever fate black holes bring upon their captives. Not all of this came from Roll. Mega Man stared back at her, saying volumes with only his face, and yet it all could be summed up in one simple way: _I'm ashamed and disappointed in you_. Roll sputtered at his glare. What was it about the blue bomber that made you want him to think well of you? Roll had seen it happen to others, and now it was happening to her. Already her resolve was waning

"I can't do it." Roll spoke first as if this would keep him from besting her stubborn pride. How could he look at her that way? "Not after all he's done."

Mega Man's expression didn't change. He stood there a moment, letting his anger have its affect. Then he spoke.

"Help him."

That was all he said. That was all he needed to say. Already Roll could feel her heart inside her weakening, and her mad sorrow started welling up.

"Fine!" she sputtered. "I'll just go over there and make sure the guy that always persistently tries to take over the world lives to doom the day again, because I'm a stupid good guy and that's what we do!"

Roll turned away, thankful to not be looking at Mega Man's face anymore. As much as the others stared, they weren't nearly as bad as him.

_" - Stop. - "_

The housekeeper turned and glared at her brother, not quite daring to look him in the eye. _" - What? - "_

_" - I know very well what Wily is capable of. - " _Mega Man said. His resolve did not waver at all, and his disappointed face would break anyone's heart. _" - In my opinion, the worst thing he's ever done was to bring out this kind of bitterness in you. - "_

For a moment, the hatred in her face left it, and she was a girl again, free but sad. She started to shake, but after a moment simply turned around and went for the mad scientist to see what she could do. Bass moved away as she approached, entirely weirded out. Roll glared at him. It was glare she definitely got back in return, but it made Bass go away and that was what counted. Wave Man, however, was far more helpful. He ordered his team members to leave (especially Crystal Bot - she was starting to cry) and to make sure that the lab was safe. He himself helped Roll, making no comment whatsoever on her outburst.

It wasn't fair for her, Mega Man knew as he watched his sister. It wasn't fair for anyone. But what Mega Man was determined that they would not do is let a weakened old man convulse to death while they stood beside him and watched.

"Hey, where's Proto Man?" Gyro Man asked. "How long has he been gone?"

Mega Man blinked, looking around the hangar. His brother didn't seem to be anywhere, not guarding the Skull Capsule or standing somewhere near Cain's ugly hoverjets. In the end, Rock just shrugged.

"I don't know." he said. "Hey, help me get Zero out of that ship."

\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Yeah, it's probably a good idea to read this story last rather than let it be the first of mine you read. Anyway, check out Okkusenman, particularly chapters 5 and 9 for the explanation of why Bass' busters are the way they are..

- Meh, I don't feel like translating the korean in this chapter. I'll let you guess what it means. Put it in a review and I'll tell you if you're right.

- Even Proto Man's got to get a little ego going sometimes. Bass brings out a lot of attitude in him.

- Black holes compress everything they suck in to a really small density, right?

- Alright, guys, I really owe you an apology. It's been weeks since I last updated, and I've been meaning to be more or less constant. I'm really sorry. It's just that, I've been getting really burned out, and now finally I feel like I can continue with this and be really happy about it, like I was at first. Honestly, it was getting hard for me at a point. Now though, I feel really good about this, and I want to be done at the end of the year. I feel like I can do this.

But yeah, no matter what my excuse was, this chapter was dang hard to edit. I rewrote almost all of this madness, and I didn't have an easy time then. There was just so much to decide in battle scenes, and I wanted to do them at least a little convincingly. It's a little easier here than a real battle, as I've seen the video games and I'm not particularly interested in real fighting (except karate and such, but I don't know anything about them either).

In any case, I'm sorry. I'm going to say that I'll update now only when I feel like I can, and not say anything more specific than that. The irony here is that I'll probably be updating more often that way.

Character Profiles!

=====Top Man

**"You spin me right round, baby!"**

Good point: Wheel greasing (Good at making necessary arrangements)

Bad point: Storytelling (Luck pusher)

Likes: Ice skating

Dislikes: Bad dancers

I love Top Man. Always did. I always thought it was cute to play around with the Top Spin after Mega Man got it - it was like ballet. I included the Japanese info in parenthesis, because I really like both sets of data for him. It gives him good depth that's really funny.

Anyway, Top Man was created by Dr. Wily and Dr. Light when they were both working on Gamma. Top Man was more Dr. Light's work; the good doctor wanted Top Man to entertain children. Wily always objected to this, saying that it would be better if they engineered their eight robots to search for resources to power Gamma. Dr. Light still wanted his robot to have a purpose directly beneficial to man, but he relented and allowed Dr. Wily to upgrade the Team 3 robots for resource gathering.

Top Man, however, recieved the least of Dr. Wily's attention. Top Man was fine with that. He always preferred being around people and entertaining them, and while he admits being bad is something of a guilty pleasure for him, he loves to make people happy more than anything else. Besides showing off. Wily reprogrammed him along with the others, but even then never really gave him much attention - he preferred robots like Shadow Man and Needle Man. Top Man wasn't good enough to warrant lots of work from Wily, nor was he disobedient enough to require reprogramming. This helped Top Man develop something of an independent nature.

After the Team 3 scheme, Shadow Man broke his team out of storage before they could be placed in the new robot museum. Dr. Wily was away in Russia forcing Cossack to do his bidding, and while he was gone Top Man finalized his spinning greenhouse in what would become Wily fortress number 5. This greenhouse produced plants that would become energy pellets once processed, and even though Wily was really bitter from the failure of his last scheme, this cheered him considerably. The main reason Top Man was never trapped in the robot museum until just after MM10 was that Wily was never willing to risk losing his source of energy pellets.

Top Man was destroyed by Bass during the events of Okkusenman, but has since become restored by Dr. Cain. Cain regretted building him - he wanted servants, not gardners, which he considered should be human. Top Man was abandoned at the secret cave base for the past year, which he hated. For his own amusement, he grew a garden in an emptier room with what sunlight went through the window. Cain was tempted to tear it up, but he didn't have enough time.

So yeah, Top Man gets killed by Crystal Bot. She'll repair him, though. She thinks he's funny, and he was always nice to her when they both served Wily, as she was one of the few people that could put up with him telling a story for long.

=====Grenade Man

**"Gha ha ha! Time for the party!"**

Good point: Good bomber

Bad point: Blind fool

Likes: Stimulant

Dislikes: Rational robots

Most of the time Wily is drunk while musing over what robots to create next, and even he admits he was extra drunk this time. That, however, didn't stop him from enjoying the madness of Grenade Man, one of his Team 8 creations. Before the evil energy fell, he designed this robot to be made out of cheaper parts that explode in a wave of shrapnel. Grenade Man can be rebuilt over and over again very cheaply, and frequently had to be. Between the end of his scheme and the events of Okkusenman, he was in and out of the robot museum. At one point he was actually left inside the robot museum, and Wily used a copy of his memory to build an alternate Grenade Man - who was destroyed not too long later.

For a time, Grenade Man was forgotten, but Wily went ahead and sprung him out of jail during the events of Okkusenman. Shortly thereafter, Grenade Man proved to be one of the robots virus-invaded by Cain, and was destroyed by Elec Man. Wily didn't bother rebuilding him right away, and ended up arrested before he had the chance. Sight Man recovered Grenade Man's very simplistic plans and built a third edition of him for Dr. Cain, and that version is what fights in this chapter. Unfortunately for him, he's headed for the robot museum.

Throughout his lifetime of ups and downs, Grenade Man has remained more or less optimistic, as fun for him is easy to come by. He has few friends, and even Burner Man is nervous around him (Grenade Man, however, would love it if Burner Man attacked him). Team 8 was kind to him, however, and he was good friends with everyone in it (more or less because they were insane), with the exception of Tengu Man.


	16. Dark Side of the Blues

The mood was cheery in Light Laboratories. Everyone was merry. Completely exhausted, too. They had spent the last hours simply sorting out all of the robots they had defeated, trying to hack into them then fix them before sending them off to the robot museum. Between that and repairing the heroes' injuries, Auto had a lot of work to do. Dub helped him arrange the lab and catch falling screws. Roll had to help as well, rushing about with parts of Psycho Man and trying to get them back in order without tripping over the pile of Grenade Man on the floor.

In the corner of the messy, busy laboratory, our main heroes were gathered together on the last couple of repair tables. Their mood was jolly. Who wouldn't be after the success of their mission? Wily was in custody, Zero was captured and safely held by the REA, Dr. Cain's last base of operations was found (they found his submarine later), and Dr. Cain himself was of course arrested.

The lesser of the mad scientists was actually quite cooperative. Last the robots saw of him, he was compliantly showing the police all his files. Mega Man had the sense that Dr. Cain was using this as one last way to show off; he was a genius and he was going to at least prove that before they hauled him back to prison. Rock did have to admit that Dr. Cain's plan for rebuilding the economy after losing all the robots was very intelligent, and he hoped it could be learned from and used should anything horrible happen to the earth.

The human police took over at Dr. Cain's base, so that left nothing more for Mega Man to do but bring his allies back for repairs and compile their reports to the Robotic Ethics Agency. A happy, helmetless Rock (he liked his hair poofy no matter what Roll had to say) couldn't help smiling as he watched his friends. Though Blues had teleported away from Dr. Cain's lab without being noticed, he was now sitting on the repair table nearest the corner right alongside his brother. Mega Man thought he might overheat with happiness that his once shy brother now felt welcome in the lab. Proto Man's neck was even naked; Roll was washing his trademark scarf. Noticing his brother's glance, Proto Man grinned back. In his own subdued way, of course.

Wave Man sat in a chair to the left of Proto Man, one of the spare chairs that were used for the occasional guest to Light Laboratories. The Team 5 leader usually preferred to stand, but his leg had recieved a nasty gash, and he sat to save everyone the trouble of it creaking. All the same, Wave Man was jolly, and his inner workings bubbled with laughter at a joke Bass made.

_I can't believe Bass is actually telling jokes. _

Mega Man tried not to make it look too obvious that he was looking at Bass, where he sat at the computer console across from Rock. Bass had turned the chair around from the computer screen, and instead of reading the book _Fear and Trembling_ that was dog-eared and laying on the console, he was actually conversing with Blues and Wave Man about their latest excursion.

Crystal Bot was there too, nervous for a couple of reasons. The first of which was plainly obvious. The poor girl-bot huddled in the corner of the room, trying her hardest not to look at all of the broken robots in the room. Of course, looking at the others was her other reason, as she was in the midst of explaining her recent actions.

"So I really wasn't trying to betray anyone." Crystal continued. "I really _was _just going out to get a replacement part for Dub from Mr. Redford. Epic Man must have figured out somehow that I was researching all the old Wily castles. I didn't know that Dr. Cain was hiding there, I just wanted to check and see if that was a lead. Epic Man came up while Roll was there, so I figured I'd try and save both our skins by using the plan I told you about, Forte-kun."

"I like that. You have a perfect, convenient excuse for not doing what you're told." Bass snorted. "And you just happened to have Dub and Bruce merged so that you could erase Dr. Cain's influence from your head."

"I wanted to be as prepared as possible in case you let me." Sonata said with perfect innocence, straightening up in the exact posture to convey that. "I wasn't gonna betray you guys _really_. I just tend to think outside of the box, and that's what you like about me, remember?"

Bass snorted again, producing a haughty giggle from his technician.

"Besides," she proudly lifted a fist into the air. "I'm Team 5! We stick together!"

Wave Man chortled in his gurgly voice. "I raised you well, I see."

"Not quite well enough." Proto Man put in, lifting Mega Man's mind storage drive up for Crystal to see. "You haven't explained this. Why does your gift for Rock here send out a narrow beam transmission when he stores new information on it?"

Crystal Bot froze. Robotic skin on first generation robots doesn't change colors, but everyone swore that she paled. And then everyone swore that she blushed. Embarrassed, Crystal hung her head a little.

"I forgot about that..." Her voice faded into barely above a whisper. "Um, I was gonna...scan Rock so that I could upgrade Forte-kun and...convince him to defeat Rock." Crystal got a little courage back as she went on, and managed a better volume. "Gee, I guess I understand why you think I'd be a bad guy. But don't worry, I really wouldn't! Evil isn't any fun without Forte-kun."

Mega Man smiled warmly. Crystal was so cute being repentant, and it was so hard to stay mad at her - even though he knew some of it had to be an act. "It's okay. Bass explained to us about your argument. I can't say I'm not disappointed, but I'll forgive you. After all, your plan did help us out a lot. We got two criminals at once, and I can't ignore your part of that."

The girl-bot began to look hopeful. "So you're not gonna report me to Reyes?"

"Well, I already reported to him when you disappeared." Mega Man said. "But he knows your personality. I'll explain to him what happened, but I'll go easy on you, and I won't tell him about the zip drive. I am going to restrict your access to computers in the lab, though."

Proto Man shifted a bit, setting the storage drive beside him. "Crystal, 'going evil' isn't fun at all, with or without Bass. Later you and I are going to have to have a talk, and I'm explain a few things to you. From one robot to another."

Bombs didn't scare her and guns were no problem, but the very thought of a lecture made Crystal Bot gasp with horror. Most of it was put on to appear cuter (and less guilty), but having to deal with a lecture - namely one where she would just have to sit there and take it without being able to distract herself with some work - sounded terrifying. Already she figeted uncomfortably. But no, Proto Man's face, while still smiling, was quietly relentless. His discussion was not going to be optional.

"Wave Man!" Crystal Bot awkwardly tried to make a joke of it. "Forte! Y'all are supposed to protect me from things like this!"

"Heh," Bass smirked. "I saved your life already in the past twenty-four hours. You're on your own now."

"Bah, you!" Crystal Bot teasingly flipped a hand in his direction. "Bah!"

"Here we are!" Roll exclaimed as she walked up to the merry group bearing a tray of E-tanks. "I don't know why all of you have to have this little meeting now instead of after you're all repaired, but you can at least have something to power up with. Honestly. You need to take care of yourselves."

"Ah, thank you." Wave Man was the closest, and he took the first tank with the metal fingers on his hose arm. "Just what I need."

"No problem!" Roll was always happiest when she was serving others. "Alright, Bass, here you are!"

"Thanks." Bass took a can and popped it open immediately. "I earned it today."

"And for you, Blues!" Roll practically squealed. As much as she tried to be casual, it just wasn't working. "Please take one!"

Proto Man smiled, if a bit awkward. Usually he stood for no one fussing over him, but today Mega Man witness what amounted to a miracle. His brother merely took the can, allowing himself to be served. Rock was tempted to laugh. Even in small ways Proto Man wasn't particularly comfortable with letting others aid him rather than the other way around. But even this small gesture made Roll beam.

Of course, the light of such beaming was tempered as Roll shyly offered the tray to her next brother. Her cheeks tightened a little, and she found herself staring nervously into Rock's eyes.

_" - I'm really sorry how I acted earlier. - " _Roll said. _" - I should have just helped Dr. Wily like you told me. - "_

For his own part, Rock wasn't sure what to think. He knew Roll was more upset about his disappointment in her than repentant about refusing her medical assistance. She meant what she said for the wrong reasons. Mega Man, however, wasn't going to be harsh to her. He smiled warmly at his sister. Her happiness at the moment was more important to him.

_" - Don't think about it anymore. - " _Mega Man took his E tank with a smile. _" - I don't. Just be happy again. - "_

Apparently Roll was a very obedient sort. Him just telling her to be happy made Roll want to. Crystal wasn't the only one that disliked lectures, though for Roll they were worse. She was the one that had to worry about not talking about a future that didn't happen. And apparently it would never happen. With Zero captured, no one would ever get the Zero virus, Sigma would never turn evil, neither the Mother Elf nor Omega would be created, and humanity and robotity would not die out. Roll had to wonder if her memories of that future would disappear. After all, since it didn't happen, why should she have it on her mind any longer? Or did time not work that way, since the data was already recorded on her CPU?

Roll walked over to Crystal Bot as she thought all of these things, absentmindly proffering the last drink remaining on her tray. It took her a moment to come out of her stupor and realize that Crystal Bot was just staring at the E tank, not taking it off of the platter. Roll looked at her friend with question.

"What's wrong?"

This startled Crystal Bot a bit, and she looked up. "Uh, well, you see, I've never had an E tank before. I never needed one."

"You're kidding, right?" Bass said, taking a deep swig of his. "Of course you have."

"Nope. Never did. I'm not a fighter-bot."

Crystal curiously picked up the metal can, a bit nervous for some reason. Gently opening the can, Crystal took a little sip. She at once brightened. With a giggle, she thrust her can up in the air.

"_Konbei_!" she cheered with a scream.

No less merry, the others lifted their E tanks and joined in. It was definitely a time worth celebrating. Mega Man cheered all the more merrily - he could see that his sister's joy was genuine, not at all tainted by the doubts that depressed her for so long. It was a wonderful moment for him. He was surrounded by people he cared about all while celebrating the end of Wily's era of villainy. Of course Mega Man maintained the inward caution that Wily had one last trick or something waiting to get him, but still, if they had captured Zero, then what robot could possibly be worse than him?

Mega Man finished his E tank first and wiped his mouth on his arm. "Ah, that's good. Thanks, Roll."

"No problem." she took the can from him. Even without Dr. Light there she was going to make sure to keep the place as close to neat as she could. At least she would after the lab was cleaned up from all of the robots. She glanced at the screws, armor plates, and robotic remains and stifled a sigh. Mega Man saw this and laughed. Crystal Bot laughed also, but for a different reason.

"I'm kinda sad I didn't get to stay evil for long." Crystal Bot giggled, looking over at the housekeeper-bot. "I didn't get to make Roll my evil villain sister."

"What?" Roll turned around, pretending to be upset. She put the arm not holding her platter on her hip. "Who said you could do that?"

"I'd be evil. I don't need permission!" Sonata giggled. "I'd make you evil and take over the world and we'd get whatever we wanted! I'd build a castle that's nothing but pink on the inside! Pink, as far as the eye can see! And shiny!"

"Ew, I don't like pink." Roll complained. "I like red."

"Okay, so you can have the east wing and that'll be red as far as the eye can see." Crystal Bot put a finger to her chin. "Okay, and we'll have a throne room but that won't be pink or red. It'll be in the center and it'll be like in a royal castle, all made of stones. We'll also have an underwater kingdom, and Wave Man can be the underwater despot."

"No thank you." Wave Man said. "I'm perfectly fine with not ruling anyone. I wouldn't mind an underwater nature preserve, though."

"Okay. It'll have to be an evil one, though. Evil!" Crystal Bot exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air - and spilling a bit of E tank on her dress. "...Oops."

"If you make Roll evil, I'll have to stop you." Mega Man teased her. "Are you sure you want to risk that? Do you have eight robot masters waiting for me?"

"I'll beat you easy!" Crystal stuck out her tongue. "And then...dun dun dun! You will become...the castle's janitor! You'll have to clean it all day long just like Roll cleans up around here. You don't get to be lazy and just shoot stuff anymore. You have to work hard mopping the floors, cleaning the windows, and scrubbing the throne room with a toothbrush!"

That got a laugh out of everyone. Even Proto Man, usually so protective of his brother, smirked at him. Mega Man feigned a gasp and pretended to be horrified, even clutching his chest with fear.

"Oh no! Anything but that!"

Roll laughed as well. "That's what you get for tracking so much soot into my clean house! You could have at least used the hose out back. Oh!" Roll's evil (cute) glare turned right over to the black and gold robot. "Wait, Sona-chan, what about Bass? We have to put him to work too."

"Leave me out of your sick fantasies." Bass downed the last of his E tank. "Crazy girl-bots."

"Of course! Bass would be our royal bard!" Crystal Bot winked at him. "He would sing us songs all day and he would write a song especially for us, saying how wonderful Queen Sinistra and Queen Destra are. You should hear him sing, Roll-chan. He sounds like heavenly angels! Aw, sing us a song, Forte-kun!"

"Hell no. Hell, hell no. What did I tell you about your sick fantasies?" Bass said, chuckling and crushing his empty E-tank in his hands. "Roll, you better stop her, or else I'm tossing this can behind the computer."

"Ah, messiness! My secret weakness! Keep it up and the only rivalry you'll have with Rock is who can clean the windows in my throne room faster." Roll teased, showing off her deft organizational skills by snatching the can from him. "So be good."

With that, Roll gathered up all the cans (Crystal had to rush to finish hers) and went about her merry cleaning business, letting everyone else carry on the conversation.

"What about me?" Proto Man said. "I'll find a way to stop you evil villain girls from taking over the world. I am Proto Man, after all."

"That's where you got it all wrong, Proto-kun!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "I've got the perfect plan to shut you down! When me and Roll - I mean Destra - beat up Rock and Forte-kun, we'll upgrade Rush and Treble into huge monsters! Rush will be the mighty Crush, and Treble will be the all powerful Tremble! They'll shoot you with their laser eyes!" Crystal made little hand pistols for emphasis. _"Pyoo, pyoo!_"

"Tremble?" Bass said. "What kind of crap is that?"

"What's wrong with it?" Crystal Bot turned to her boss. "Treble becomes Tremble because he makes people tremble. It makes perfect sense."

"No, it doesn't." Bass scoffed. "'Crush' implies that that's what Rush will do, but Treble _trembles_? No. Absolutely not."

"You could call him 'Trouble'." Mega Man suggested. "That's pretty close."

"Boo!" Crystal Bot objected. "No way. The rule is you have to add one letter and that's the robot's new name."

"I was going to suggest 'Tremor'." Proto Man just shrugged. "But that's sort of the same as 'Tremble' anyway."

"_And_ it doesn't follow the rule!"

"As amusing as all of this is," Wave Man said. "We still have some business to conduct. Not all enemy robots are accounted for."

"You're right, sorry." Mega Man got down off the repair table and straightened up. Somehow standing up made him feel more professional. "Okay, Wave Man, what robots escaped? I was too busy trying to find Dr. Wily to keep up with it at the time."

"Of the enemies those with you faced," Wave Man answered. "Hard Man and Chill Man escaped. Of the ones my group fought, we haven't accounted for Nitro Man, Elec Man, and Shadow Man. You noticed that Epic Man disappeared. Gyro Man reported to me that Frantic Man got away, and we never recovered Algorhythm Man's body."

"So that's potentially seven or eight robots we'll have to find in the future." Mega Man scrunched his eyebrows together, deep in thought. "Huh. Normally Wily's robots are pretty fanatic about watching out for him. I'm shocked that they would run away rather than try to help Dr. Wily escape. Would Wily want them to leave? Like have some alternate mission for them to do if he was caught?"

"That sounds really long term for Wily." Bass scoffed. "He's not patient enough for that."

"He might be this time." Proto Man too got down from the repair table. "I left Dr. Cain's base to the rest of you because I was investigating ArmorCore Antivirus. It turns out that this program as well as Anderson Antivirus for the military are both traceable to Dr. Wily. _He's _the one that programmed them."

"Oh no!" Mega Man gasped. "There's no telling what Dr. Wily would do with those!"

"Actually, right now they're good anti-virus programs." Proto Man said. "Whatever Wily was planning to do with these, he wanted people to trust them. They won't do anything harmful to robots now, but of course at one point or another Wily could announce some sort of upgrade. This upgrade would doubtlessly involve something harmful."

"He _is _being long-term." Mega Man glanced over at the dark robot. "Bass is still right, though. It's not like him."

"The good news here is that Wily's robots will have no way of knowing we've discovered the connection between him and these anti-virus programs." Proto Man continued. "All we have to do is wait and see if something happens to one of them. Any plan of Wily's has to be carried out using them, so we'll notice right away."

"In that case," Bass stood up with a creak and a grunt. "I'm going to get back into proper working order. Sonata, you've got some spare armor for me, right?"

"Yeah." the girl-bot piped up. "I set up a workstation for you in one of the AI labs. It's too crowded in here."

"Alright. Before you go, I'll need everyone's memory discs and send them to Mr. Reyes." Mega Man volunteered. "Then I'm off for repair myself. Ugh, I could really use some joint work on my arms!"

Mega Man wriggled his left hand. It wasn't quite reacting properly. For the moment he shrugged if off, waiting patiently as Bass loaded his memories on a zip drive Crystal Bot handed to him. Crystal pulled another out of her armor and recorded her own. Wave Man, however, was already prepared. He pulled six already loaded zip drives out of his armor and handed them to the blue bomber.

"I'm sorry, but Star Man's battle memories are not recoverable." he said. "His injury was very severe and we have to use his back up memory just to restore him."

"I understand." Rock nodded. "Poor guy. He can be repaired, right?"

"Oh yes, he'll be alright." Wave Man gurgled. "Not much can stop my team."

Bass silently added his zip drive to Mega Man's open hands before heading off to the A.I. lab his technician pointed to. Crystal Bot had more memories to give to Mega Man, so it took her a bit longer to load all of her memories. Not much longer. A moment later she too could hand her zip drive to Mega Man and wander off. Crystal Bot didn't head straight away to one of the main lab's side rooms. After tiptoeing carefully past the mess that was once Psycho Man (those legs of his were perfect for tripping the unaware) she went over to another repair table, one closer to the center of the room and the mess. The automated machines in Dr. Light's lab weren't enclosed like Wily's; instead they are open mechanical arms hanging from the ceiling working on their robot.

Usually, anyway. There were many sparks coming from a particular table, which was why metal panels hung from the ceiling to block the table's edges. Crystal Bot went over to the pillar computer and pushed a few keys. She smiled. The work was almost done. In fact, even as she observed this, the metal panels went up again, as did most of the repair arms. Underneath all of that lay a robot that was once again shiny. Jewel Man opened his eyes.

"_Ahbohjee_?" she whispered.

"Sonata," Jewel Man opened his eyes, smiling. "You're alright?"

"Yes." she nodded. "I haven't been really repaired yet, but I wasn't hurt much in the first place. I'll get repaired just as soon as Forte's better."

Jewel Man sat up with a moan. "I do wish you would think a little more about yourself, sweetheart. You're not the only robot in the lab."

"That's obvious." Crystal giggled as she glanced around the room. "Forte-kun is the front line. Gotta keep the fighters in ship-shape!"

"Just don't wear yourself out in the meantime, sweetheart." Jewel Man took Crystal Bot's hand. "You're my little girl, and someone's got to watch out for you."

"Don't you hog that repair table, Jewel Man!" Auto fussed as he hurried over, shifting Signal Man to his other arm so that he could sternly shake a finger at the naughty shiny-bot. "I've got lots of robots to fix today!"

Jewel Man lifted his hands in teasing surrender as he hopped off the table. "I'm going, I'm going. Now give me some work if you're in that much of a hurry."

"Alright! Now that sounds much better!" Auto plopped Signal Man down where Jewel Man had been only seconds earlier, then took out his fan and started to whip it back and forth. "Ooowhee! I'm overheating in here! Go off and start working on Star Man for me. Galaxy Man just brought back his storage drive, and I need you to upload his memories into his new brain."

"I'm on the job!" Jewel Man said. "Good thing that Great Gems is letting me have this week off."

Crystal Bot followed Jewel Man to the other side of the room, next to the wall (yay for more wreckage dodging!). She used the excuse that Bass' extra armor was stashed in a storage locker nearby and she had to get it, though really she was more worried about her space-bot uncle. Star Man, bless his soul, had done his best over the years to try and teach Crystal Bot some literary and artistic appreciation, but unfortunately for him opera wasn't shiny.

The poor space-bot looked horrible. His metal head was shot clean through, and with his head armor and face removed to let a technician get a better look, he appeared as little more than a metal skeleton. Crystal Bot couldn't help but let out a whimper. Star Man's "friend" Galaxy Man hovered nearby, and for the life of him Jewel Man couldn't tell if Galaxy was wiry or worried. The silver robot kept switching between flitting about the area and staring stock still at Star Man, his antennae wiggling.

"How is he?" Jewel Man asked. "Where is his substitute memory drive?"

"It's on the computer beside him." Galaxy Man said with pride, turning a nice shade of tickled pink. "I didn't even mess with it at all! Ha, ha! I saved the day! Usually Star Man takes his mind storage drive with him, but he was lucky I swiped it from him before he left! Otherwise it would have been smashed when Star Man's front armor got hit in the battle!" Galaxy Man smacked Star Man's chest armor for emphasis. "How lucky is that? He would have been gone permanently, but I had his storage drive hidden away! How happy he'll be once he finds out I saved his life!"

"Um, why did you take his zip drive in the first place?" Crystal asked. "What were you planning on doing with it?"

"Oh, I was just going to play an innocent prank...nothing serious, nothing serious!" Galaxy Man switched to yellow. "I was going to replace his A.I. with mettool A.I. Isn't that so cute?"

Crystal Bot covered her face with a hand, trying to muffle her laughter. Jewel Man frowned at the two of them with disapproval. He was sure Galaxy Man knew how much Star Man couldn't stand him. He shook his head. "You know, one day Star Man is going to get you back for all the pranks you pull on him."

"Nonsense! I'm much more clever!" Galaxy Man winked. "He's no good at pranks at all. Takes life way too seriously! Besides, he owes me his life! That's the best prank of all. How can he top that?"

"Hee hee, I like you, Galaxy-kun!" Crystal Bot giggled. "You're fun. Later you have to go play Zero-G soccer with me, okay?"

"It's a date!" Galaxy Man happily spun around, going from silver to neon blue, to pink, and then back again. "If I can ever pry you away from Bass."

"Eep! Forte-kun!" Crystal Bot quickly ran over to the wall to decode the security enabled lock and get his armor out. "I gotta get goin'!"

As all this was going on, Mega Man looked through the discs everyone gave him. He nodded to himself; they were all there. Things were really turned out better than he had hoped. While everything at first seemed so lost with having to face two mad scientists at the same time, the whole situation had turned around, and now both were in custody. The fight wasn't over yet, but Mega Man was sure that all of the allies could come together and finally bring an end to everything Wily planned.

Best of all, Proto Man was still there, standing right beside him, allowing Roll to tie on his freshly cleaned scarf. For some reason the loner robot hadn't left, even though Mega Man knew exactly how much the crowded place made him nervous. Rock wished he understood why his brother felt this way.

"Hey, let's go to the 'library'." Rock said, putting the zip drives under his armor. "It's too crowded in here, and it's hard for me to concentrate when there's so much noise going on in here."

It didn't immediately occur to Mega Man until after he spoke that he was assuming Proto Man was going to hang around. Thankfully though, Blues' only reaction was a calm "alright". He was perfectly content to follow his brother out of the room and join him in the messy office of the late doctor. Roll, however, had done a good job in the room. It was at least far more organized, and each blueprint and note was either rolled up and sorted or tucked away into a proper file. Not one shred of paper stuck out randomly, bringing a final and calm clean to the room that had never existed in Dr. Light's lifetime.

"Let's see...Team 5, me, and Bass..." Mega Man spread the zip drives out on the desk and counted them. "All minus Star Man. I guess I'll format these and put them on my zip drive before I send it off. I don't suppose it would be appropriate to ask if you wanted to give your memory of the fight to Mr. Reyes, right?"

"Not this time." Proto Man shook his head. "It was proper when the roboenza virus was around, but not now. I'm sure Reyes can figure out what happened with nine eyewitness accounts anyway."

"Okay." Rock plugged one (Gravity Man's) into his neck and began to sort it out in the format Mr. Reyes liked. Wily robots weren't always compatible with government technology, and he wanted to look at what the others had seen anyway. "I was hoping you'd fight a little more with us."

"I was planning on it, but I got caught up looking for information on Wily's anti-virus programs. ArmorCore potentially could have been his biggest success. If he tricked enough people into buying it, well...you can guess what would happen." Proto Man said, leaning against one of the shelves. "This is changing the subject, but I'm a little worried about Roll. She's been acting strangely these past weeks."

_Proto Man noticed how she's acting? I don't remember seeing him around here much. _ Mega Man wondered. "Well, she's been really iffy since Dr. Light died. About two weeks afterward, she had an emotional matrix split. Auto's scanned and checked her several times and found nothing. I'm beginning to think that her problem isn't mechanical."

"Not mechanical? I've never seen a robot with a mental illness."

"Dr. Light was always very good at getting us to emulate real human emotion." Mega Man pulled Gravity Man's drive out of his neck. "I never really understood it, but Dr. Light always said Roll's emotions were more advanced than mine."

"Maybe she has some sort of expectation that everything should be like it was." Proto Man suggested. "She's not used to not taking care of the doctor. Maybe we'll have to find her a new job."

Mega Man glanced at the next zip drive. It looked a little different than the others. He just shrugged at it. Any zip drive was usually as good as another. He plugged it into his neck, and instantly his face assumed an expression of confusion. This drive didn't have today's date on it. It had several dates, most of which were from many years ago. The latest date in the zip drive was only a week ago, however. Rock accessed the file.

It was a recording of a sad girl that Mega Man didn't recognise. He did recognise the wall behind her as one of the offices in the Robotic Ethics Agency. Someone out of the video's sight was interviewing her, and the more questions he asked, the more the girl cried. Tears streaked down the girl's face as she...as she...no! Surely she was lying! Mega Man searched through the other files on the drive, discovering the many crimes of his older brother. Worse than all the others was the one _she_ spoke of, and Rock watched the security footage as a human backed away through a door, followed by buster-ready Proto Man. And then there were the flashes of plasma.

"Rock?" Proto Man shook his shoulder. "Rock, what's the matter?"

Mega Man didn't say anything. His eyes darted over to his brother, and ever so slowly the rest of his face did the same. He blinked twice, coming out of his trance long enough to let out a breath. The confusion came back, and his eyes were filled with it as they stared at his older sibling.

"Blues?" he said, barely above a whisper. "Who is Richard Copenhagen?"

Silence. A bullet through the heart. Proto Man stiffened. Inwardly he screamed. Inwardly he was tearing down mighty towers with sheer rage. Outwardly? Not a thing. There was nothing he could do. Mega Man knew, and every second that passed made it more clear exactly how much Rock had just learned about him. The blue robot shook his head.

"Blues...tell me she's lying...please tell me that this didn't happen...you didn't shoot him..."

Proto Man said nothing. He couldn't deny anything. He only backed away from his brother; if he were too near, than his brother could see through the visor. Once that began, he took a few more steps back. He couldn't stand near Rock...he couldn't watch Mega Man's face fall as he realized the worst of what Proto Man had done. The pain in Rock's innocent eyes was too much for him to bear. And yet his brother wouldn't let him back away. Every step Proto Man took backwards was quickly matched.

"We've got to do something." Mega Man desperately said, hardly even knowing what words were coming out of his mouth. "We can talk to someone. We can deal with this...somehow..."

Outwardly, not a thing. Proto Man's turmoil was all hidden away, bubbling and waiting to run over. He couldn't say anything. He wanted to lie and say it was all slander, and tell his brother not to fret. It was too late. Mega Man knew his moods, hidden by visor though they were. Before Blues knew it, his brother's arm was on his shoulder, and by all accounts it would look like Rock was about to cry.

"Blues." Mega Man said. "Tell me you didn't do this."

Without realizing what he did, Proto Man shoved Mega back and teleported out into the hall. To him, the laboratory (now more than ever) was a distrustful place, full of dark corners and shadow. Proto Man ducked away into the nearest room (a storage room for cleaning supplies) and prepared himself for a good cry. How could he ever face Rock again? To do so was an impossibility. He was so afraid!

But Proto Man didn't want to weep. The more he waited for glitching to come, the more he realized that he was mad. The more he thought about it, the more mad he got. He had gone long out of his way to make learning the truth as smooth as possible for Rock, and now the very thing he did not want to happen was upon him. And he knew exactly who to blame.

Before Proto Man knew what he was doing his feet directed him back through the lab. He barely had the patience not to kick away at any of the armor and bits of robot masters on the floor.

"Blues?" Roll immediately dropped Heat Man's armor and went toward him. "What's wrong?"

Proto Man glared at Roll, and even behind his shades it was a grimace enough to stop Roll in her tracks. He went right for the A.I. lab where he could hear the sounds of welding and calm chatting. It wasn't calm for long. The door slammed open, frightening Crystal Bot enough to stop her from fastening on her boss' new chestplate. Blues didn't care. He didn't even see her.

All he could see was Bass.

"You...BASTARD! You gave him your stupid case files!"

Crystal Bot backed away with a whimper. This was a volume she didn't even know Proto Man was capable of. "Forte, what's going on?"

"Get the hell out, Sonata." Bass growled at her before addressing Proto Man. "No I didn't, jerk. I've got the files right under my armor here."

Bass pulled a zip drive out of his armor and plugged it into his neck. Proto Man seethed, waiting just long enough for Bass to discover that it wasn't the files Reyes had given him about Proto Man's terrible early years. It was just the darn battle report. Bass winced, looking up with some apology at the Light-bot.

"Um...oops?"

"You bastard...you COMPLETE BASTARD!" Proto Man screamed, his face frightening enough for being mostly covered. "YOU LYING MONSTER!"

Crystal Bot started shaking. She would have left already, only she had to pass Proto Man to get to the door. "Forte, what is he-?"

"I said get out!" Bass snarled. "Look, it was just an accident, alright?"

"An accident? You kept it with you the entire time here! You could have switched it at any moment! Don't you DARE tell me that it was an accident!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't shot Copenhagen in the first place," Bass' eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't have to worry about your idiot baby brother finding out!"

"That's _it_!" Proto Man snarled back. "I'm going to _kill you_!"

Blues began to charge his buster, only to have Crystal Bot grab his arm in desperation and stop the charge.

"Proto-kun! He'll kill you! You don't-"

Unable to simply shake her off (and not being patient enough to try), Proto Man flung her to the floor. He didn't hear as Roll gasped, still watching from the open doorway. She helped Crystal to her feet, and Crystal slammed the door behind her as they both scrambled off.

Of course, with Crystal out of the way, there was no reason for Bass not to shoot.

Proto thought quickly. He whipped out his shield and charged forward. He knew Bass would be able to shoot it away, and sure enough the protoshield was flung aside. That was fine. Blues only needed the protection so he could get close enough-

_**BLAM!**_

Right in the face. Bass staggered back, his red eyes only growing more frightening from the impact of the hot plasma. He fired off a volley of his own, and without his shield Proto Man could feel the sharp impact with extra intensity. Before he could recover, Bass dashed over and grabbed Blues by the neck, then threw him with mighty force at the wall computer. It practically exploded, sending out a shower of massive sparks. The impact didn't electricute him, so as soon as Proto Man hit the floor he jumped right back up, dodging plasma the whole time.

That darn A.I. lab was too small. Proto Man managed to land on the counter, knocking over several computer boards and discs on the upper shelf in the process of finding something to hang onto. Before any of them hit the ground he was firing back. Bass dodged, firing back his double busters. His aim was good, as good as Proto Man's landing spot was bad. Blues was knocked off the counter. As the scarfed robot fell, Bass was able to see all the damage his weapons did to the wall. He cringed.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to keep his busters trained on Proto Man. There was no need. For his part, the fight had gone out of Blues. He stood back up, leaning against the counter and using it to pull himself up. The shots left nasty marks on his armor, showing exactly how much damage he had taken. These Bass didn't get to see for long. Proto Man's shield was once more in the crafty robot's hand, and he revealed only the side of his helmet as he spoke.

"Fine...I can't beat you directly." Proto Man hissed. "But I can disappear. It's a big planet, Bass. Go ahead. Look for me. See how well your _career _goes after they hear how you failed to bring me in, because apparently that's all you care about! What you don't know is exactly how thin the ice you're on is; I've seen your reports. There's a lot of people in the REA that aren't very happy with you."

Bass eyes widened, but after a moment he got them back under control and made them fit back into his scowl. "You're lying!"

"That's the best part: I'm not." Proto Man let out his shield a little more, revealing half an evil smile - which lasted all of half a second. "They'll be even less happy when I'm through with you. I'm not going to forget this, Ba-"

The sound was loud, but Proto Man heard nothing. All he saw was a cloud of white, consuming his vision and knocking his sensors for a loop. Gradually his vision came back, though for a few seconds his hearing was only an irritating whine. He groaned, focusing on getting his systems under control. What could possibly have hit him? Bass couldn't knock off his shield in only one shot, much less damage Proto Man that badly behind it. He tried to lift his head, knowing that something was very wrong. He had felt this shot before, many years ago in more depressing times. His ears heard it first. Only then did a dizzy Proto Man see the blue hands securing a set of handcuffs on his right arm.

"Blues..." Mega Man said quietly. "You're under arrest for the murder of Richard Copenhagen."

Mega Man reached over for his brother's left wrist, taking it to secure into the other half of the cuff. Proto Man snatched his arm back. The only thing that spared Rock from the severity of Proto Man's worst glare ever was the darkness of the visor. But even through the tint of the shades, Mega was close enough to see just a glimpse of his brother's hurt. Just a glimpse. With a sickening metal _smack_ Proto Man decked his brother, sending him sliding at least three feet across the tile floor. One teleport line later and Proto Man was gone.

Bass hadn't moved since Rock entered, and all he did now was lower his buster. He was shocked that Mega Man would shoot his own brother, especially with a fully charged blast. Mega Man seemed even more shocked. He didn't even get up. Rock lifted himself up just enough to scoot over and lean against the cabinets. He no longer acknowledged Bass. All scenery was entirely irrelevant. Rock had nothing to say about the plasma marks on the walls or the smashed computers. He just folded his legs, paused just one moment, and crumpled. His head fell, resting there in his hands. He shook, glitch after glitch, grieving as only a robot could.

The dark robot was only present physically. Emotionally, he wasn't anywhere close. Bass had no brothers that he cared about, unless hating Zero counted for some reason. Everything that Mega Man was feeling was entirely alien to him, and every second he stayed grew more awkward. Silently, Bass went to the door, gritting his teeth.

_Uh yeah...I'll just leave this guy alone for a while. Ugh, I have to explain this to Sonata. Great. Two weepy people in the same day. Crap, Roll makes three. I hate Proto Man. I have to put up with this crap because he's such a jerk._

The voice piped up again. It was that same voice he'd been hearing for a long time, acting on occasion to guide him and gently obligate him to the right thing. It stopped him at the door, quietly making its demand known. Bass froze into place, and his fangs emerged.

_No! Hell no! I'm not going to do that! You're just a stupid A.I. glitch and you can't tell me to stay here!_

That was exactly what the little voice wanted. It reminded him of how much Mega Man cared for his brother. Doubtlessly Mega Man felt more alone than he ever had before. He needed someone to sympathize with him.

_I am NOT Rock's friend! _ _I put up with the guy because the government will have me scrapped if I don't! _Bass wasn't sure if he could grit his teeth any harder than he was doing at that precise moment. His hands balled into tight fists as if he could fight the wayward program. _ He's got Roll to talk to if he wants! He's not my friend and none of my business!_

Bass knew that excuse would never work even before he finished saying it. Roll had been acting weird for months, and ever since then a gap had widened between the siblings. Bass didn't bother trying to say that they would work things out. The voice already knew this. It debated the matter no further, like any conscious would. He felt a dark tinge in his mind. Bass knew that if he left, that little voice would never forgive him for it.

_Fine! Just great! So I sit here and mope around with the little blue dweeb. What the hell am I supposed to say to him?_

The voice didn't answer. It had stated its terms.

_Forget about it! I'm not doing it! You can't make me!_

The grumpy Bass tried not to growl audibly. He opened the metal sliding doors, revealing the messy lab on the other side. All work had stopped. Auto had come halfway across the room, about as close as he dared, and Galaxy Man was with him, more quiet than the space-bot had ever been in its life. In the distance Bass could see Jewel Man glowering. Bass glowered right on back; what happened wasn't his fault, so Jewel Man could keep his face shut about it. Roll and Crystal Bot, the worst of the culprits, were right there in front of him, their fearful eyes demanding explanation.

"Forte..." Crystal asked. "What did you mean when you said Proto Man shouldn't have shot Copenhagen? Who's Copenhagen?"

Bass' hands instantly tensed, but he managed to keep himself from throttling Crystal then and there. But he was going to have to explain sooner or later. He chose later.

"It means...it means I'll tell you when I feel like it." Bass huffed. "Crystal, you've got my damage assessment, so go set up an automated machine for me while you're out there. Roll...go...clean something. I'll talk to you later."

Since when had Roll been so bold? Didn't she normally just shiver at him and avoid his gaze? Today, however, Roll was not going to be sent off with a few words, and even endured direct eye contact with the dark robot (no small feat, I can assure you). In light of Roll's courage, Crystal Bot held her position as well. She wanted to hear what happened.

"Tell me the truth, Bass." Roll said. "Did Proto Man kill someone?"

Mega Man only appeared deaf to the world. As Roll said this, he glitched harder and let out a sob. Roll shuddered, her show of strength weakening. That was enough answer for her. She backed away, growing silent. Even then, her blue eyes flitted up once more.

"You'll...find out later." Bass grumbled, dealing with his own darkness. "Just go away while I deal with this guy."

"Alright, then."

Roll stepped aside, but still looked to Bass for some sort of answer with those horrible, desperate eyes. She wasn't going to get one. Bass simply turned away and pushed the button on the wall. The door shut behind him. Mega Man wasn't looking, so he made all the horrid faces that he wanted, sour as a shipment of citris fruit.

_ARRRGGHH! I swear to God I'm going to kill Auto for putting this stupid program in me! I never should have let him change my directive! _

And so the dark robot walked over to the wall opposite Mega Man, thinking all the multifarious ways he could make Dr. Light's assistant lab robot suffer in misery. Bass thunked himself down on the floor, sitting with his legs stretched out and his arms tensely folded. He hated Auto, he hated Proto Man, and he most definitely hated the raven-haired robot sitting opposite him and crying over his criminal brother.

_Well, I'm here, conscious. You happy? What the hell do I do now?_

No answer. Bass just sat there. For once, he felt something like pity for Mega Man. It was a strange feeling, so he shoved it away in anger. He despised all weak robots, and if Mega Man was going to sit there and cry then this included him too.

Mega Man lifted his head. He leaned back against the cabinets, his shoulders slumped. A whimpering sigh escaped his lips, and he managed to look at Bass through grief-deadened eyes.

"How long have you known?"

"Eh, a few days." Bass muttered. "Reyes assigned me to catch him. Proto Man wanted a week to help you before I turned him in."

"And I got your case files."

"Yeah." Bass shifted uncomfortably. "That was an accident."

Mega Man let his head sag a little to the side. From the way the life departed from Rock's face, Bass wasn't entirely sure Rock was telling the truth when he spoke again.

"Oh." he said. "I believe you."

Things got quiet. Rock seemed preoccupied with staring at his hands, and every other moment he gave out an occasional glitch. Bass felt more awkward than ever. Every second of silence seemed to say "fill me, fill me!", though Bass couldn't think of anything to say. Was he supposed to be (gag) comforting Rock? The only way he knew to comfort was to pet behind the ears, as he did to Treble when the two of them talked of sad things. He wasn't going to pet Rock, but all the same, he felt he should say something. Unfortunately, all that came to mind was negative comments about Proto Man, which Bass had sense enough to know wasn't going to work.

Mega Man suddenly lurched forward, and out of him began to proceed little sobs as his head fell into his hands. Bass winced. He'd wondered too long and now whatever "comforting" words he could think of to say would do nothing to stop Rock's crying. Bass began to wonder if he should leave, but the little voice inside of him disapproved every time Bass began the slow process to try and get out of sight.

Mega Man, on the other hand, was even more lost. He now knew the truth about his brother: Proto Man was a murderer. He'd always known that something was very wrong with Blues; that something in him didn't line up with Light-bots. Blues looked like one of Dr. Light's designs, but all the same there was just something about him that kept everyone from just out and calling him a "Light-bot". It was something both independent and dark, self-sufficient and hopeless. It was the sort of aura that made Mega Man want to welcome his brother and let him share in their creator's heritage.

But Proto Man always resisted. He never let himself be drawn into Mega Man's "naiive" world, and now Mega Man knew why. Rock could search through all of the records and see his brother's many sins, and he could learn more of the worst of them. He shut his eyes tightly as he wept. He knew the punishments for robots that killed people. Robots had no rights, no statutes of limitations. Those limitations applied to humans, because humans could change. Robots, however, were subject to the programming of their masters. No matter how much Mega Man might try and explain to the Robotic Ethics Agency that Proto Man had indeed changed and become something better, they would not listen. They were not legally allowed to listen.

Rock cried harder. Proto Man had killed Richard Copenhagen in the attempt to steal Gamma with Wily's third team of robots. That was just before he and his brother met for the first time. While Blues had never been intimidated by his brother, all the same he'd been afraid to see him, only daring a few visits out of nervous curiosity. They'd grown closer over time, even becoming good friends. Only today Mega Man found out that the friendship was doomed before he knew his brother even existed. Proto Man was guilty of a crime that was not forgiven by the law.

Mega Man wasn't even sure he could forgive it. He didn't know how; he'd never forgiven something that big before. Here he was, a hero, and his sister was kind. His brother...his brother. A settling darkness sank its way into Mega Man's mind, right at the part of his A.I. that activated whenever he had to face another Wily team of robots. It was that challenge, that rush to defend. He would defend peace no matter who threatened it. That included Proto Man.

Rock felt a little stupid thinking that way of his brother. Proto Man wasn't a criminal like the rest...was he? As much as he wanted to defend Proto Man, Blues was guilty of a very serious crime. He wholly and justly deserved the punishment that awaited him. The blue robot took a deep breath, letting it attempt to calm him down. It didn't really work. His voice was probably still too grief-stricken not to annoy Bass.

"I did the wrong thing, didn't I?" he barely lifted his head as he asked this, and his little voice barely filled the little room. "How could I...? I tried to arrest my own brother. No wonder he ran off."

Mega Man spoke calmly. He was shaking a like a leaf, but he still managed to speak in the shaking calm tones of a person whose world was turned upside down, but the reality of which was still hitting him too hard for any severe reaction. The innocent reality Mega Man tried so hard to live in was spinning, leaving its occupant sick and dizzy. Bass was doubtful that Mega Man would even be able to stand for the next two hours. The pathetic bomber just sat there, trembling and glitching as if the world would end. Truth be told, part of his world had.

Bass didn't answer right away. He scratched his head. Guessing what made Proto Man tick was as foreign to Bass as microbiology, and of the two Bass cared more about the latter.

"Hell, he's doing what he wants." Bass muttered. "If he wants to be an idiot, then it's not your problem."

"But I scared him off." Mega Man managed a weak protest. "I just...did everything wrong."

"Oh, shut the hell up, Rock." Bass was having a hard time putting up with Mega Man's complaints. It took all the remainder of his self-control not to growl. "Proto Man made his own choices. If he wanted to straighten up and fly right he'd have turned himself in a long time ago. You can't blame yourself for what he does. I talked to the guy a while ago, and he's all screwed up in the head. He doesn't know what he's doing anymore. If he doesn't even know what he wants then there's nothing you can do to fix him either."

To his surprise, Mega Man actually nodded. "Yeah. Dr. Light used to say something similar."

Bass blinked. "He said Proto Man was screwed up?"

"No, just confused."

They didn't speak for a moment. Mega Man slumped a little more, staring down at the tiles with half open eyes. He looked like a tired human. Bass was himself exhausted. His posture relaxed a bit, and his overwhelming irritation was starting to subside. It was nice to know that some of the things that came out of his mouth made sense.

"I wish Reyes would have told me." Rock said. "It just...I wanted...I don't like being illusioned."

"You don't like it when people think you're too much of a kid to cope."

"Um, yeah." Mega Man sniffed. "I mean, I've been in a lot of battles, I can handle it."

Bass rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like you're handling it now?"

Mega Man almost mustered up the strength to object, but instead deflated, sinking back down into a slouch. "Um, yeah."

It looked as they were talking that Mega Man was getting a little better. He wasn't, not really. The blue bomber glitched again, squinching his eyes tightly shut. Proto Man was his brother. As much as the other robots Dr. Light made all had a close place in his heart, Proto Man outshone all of them. Blues was the hero for the hero, and every time his brother appeared out of nowhere it made him happy. It was like having a little miracle show up at the times they were most desperately needed, or like having a guardian angel.

Mega Man knew that Bass couldn't stand him being so weepy, and to his credit, he tried to remain calm. It was just too hard. He choked, sobbing as he covered his face.

"I can't stand it." he wept. "Why did he have to do this? I never understood before why Congress or the REA wouldn't just pardon him right off. Now...if he hadn't it would be so much easier...why did he have to do this? Most other crime can be fixed...I can pay back anything stolen...I can fix something broken...but this? After all this time, I thought Proto Man was better than this. I thought that even when he was with Wily he was a better robot, one with better judgement. That he would actually shoot a man...I can't...I just..." Mega Man lifted his desperate face. "What do I do? I don't know anymore."

"You don't have to do anything." Bass muttered. "It's up to Proto Man to decide he's going to do the right thing."

Mega Man nodded. He tried not to glitch, but it was too hard. He broke down again, shaking. Bass sighed. He guessed that this sort of thing was much harder for a robot that had lived a better life. Bass was too well aquainted with unhappiness. His "brothers" had punched him in the face (and he'd done the same to them) several different times. Of course, Bass didn't care about them. Proto Man meant something to his Mega Man. Bass grudgingly reckoned that this might be somewhat similar to how he felt about Treble. It would have felt silly to anyone else to make this comparison, but the purple wolf was Bass' true best friend, and was Bass' companion for all of the dark times of his life.

All the same, he was still Bass. There was only so far sympathy could go with him.

_Bah, you can't compare Proto-Idiot to Treble. Treble's loyal and he sticks around. Not like Blues._

"He was working for Wily. What do you expect?" Forte spoke up. "Hanging out with that evil bastard is sure to mess him up. Did you really expect that he'd never end up killing anybody?"

"You didn't. You didn't even kill Dr. Light when you had the chance long ago."

Bass was taken aback. He leaned up against the computer, trying to think why in the world he never killed a human. It wasn't as if he was a moral person. "Hell, I was too busy fighting you all the time. Killing a human doesn't impress anyone. I wasn't going to kill Dr. Light back when I tore up the lab. He repaired me and he was just a weak old guy. What would the point be?"

Rock managed the faintest of smiles. "I wouldn't be upgraded anymore and you could defeat me."

"Oh yeah." Bass thought about it a minute. He just shrugged. "Eh, whatever."

Mega Man made himself inhale deeply, trying to refresh his mind. He was beginning to feel a little better. Still trying to leave and face the others was looking to be a daunting task. He didn't feel like getting up yet. He could wait a while.

"Hey, Bass..."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

The dark robot shifted, a little uncomfortable. "Eh, you're welcome."

He resisted adding "don't expect me to be nice like this all the time". It just didn't seem like the right thing to say, as much as he wanted to say it. Instead, he sat there, watching as Mega Man lowered his head again and continued staring at the floor. This grieving process was going to take a while, but Bass would take it like any challenge: with all the stubborness he possessed. And he had quite a lot.

\\\\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- If you recall from the Bonus Features of Okkusenman, pink and shiny are Crystal Bot's favorite colors. Roll, on the other hand, can't stand pink and is only moderately fond of shine.

- In this day and age, zip drives cost next to nothing and are generally the most common form of mass data communication between robots.

- Yes, _Fear and Trembling _is a real book. It's also really weird.

- Robot handcuffs prevent internal arm busters from converting from hands to busters once they're set into place. They don't have a chain in the middle, but basically are two metal bars with a pair of gaps in the middle for robot wrists. They open and close like a hinge, and they have a lock on the open in for when they need to be closed. Also, Proto Man's teleports aren't traceable. The technology he uses isn't entirely compatible with modern robotic requirements. A lot of him is that way.

=====Hard Man

**"Oooh, what a drag!"**

Good point: Can keep secrets

Bad point: Lazybones

Likes: Sumo wrestling

Dislikes: Swimming

Hard Man is Team 3's most underestimated robot, both in my story and in real life. He has a really great theme, but for some reason when people think of MM3 they think of one of the more exciting robots instead of him. It takes a minute for people to remember that he's there. But I still like my beer keg buddy.

Hard Man was designed pretty much equally by Drs. Wily and Light. Light had his ideas for him, Wily had his ideas for him, but at the end of the day they two found themselves working more on other robots. Hard Man was closer to Dr. Light, and as a good robot he was very friendly and made fun jokes. His personality didn't change too much even when he turned evil; though Team 3 was the most disunited of all the robot master teams, whenever they had to work together they never complained about Hard Man. They talked to him and knew he would never tell their secrets, making Hard Man the most generally knowledgeable about Wily's robot's doings. Other than Team 5 or 4, the other robots found him equally trustworthy, mostly because Hard Man was too lazy to tell other people's secrets. He and Yamato Man got along very well, and often watched Japanese sporting events together.

As I mentioned in one of the earlier chapters, Hard Man was seen on the security footage when Richard Copenhagen was killed, and up till recently he was the one blamed for Richard's death. Hard Man didn't actually know Copenhagen before Wily reprogrammed him, so he had no clue he wasn't guilty (nor would he have cared if he were).

Since then, Hard Man spent a couple of stints in the robot museum, doing Wily's will in between. He was released during the events of Okkusenman, and when the last Wily castle was destroyed, he was injured by Charge Man. Unable to escape, he was found and reprogrammed again by Signal Man and placed inside Dr. Cain's secret base, where he was made to extend several tunnels and construct more labs to make the place more comfortable for Dr. Cain. Cain took something of a liking to him, and thus Hard Man ended up getting an earful of Cain's complaints about his ex-wife.

=====Ice Man

**"Can you see me, everyone?"**

Good point: A show off

Bad point: Self centered (selfish)

Likes: Snowball fights

Dislikes: Sauna

Yay! Ice Man! Seriously though, what's wrong with his data? What's so great about a show off? Also, I put the Japanese bad point in parenthesis up there. Selfish and self centered are two different things. Selfish people take your stuff. Self-centered people always talk about themselves and try to make everything revolve around themselves. That doesn't really have anything to do with anything, does it? Well, I think of the two self-centered fits better, particularly when you pair it with him being a show off.

Ice Man is the only robot in the world known to be cuter than Mega Man, and even when he was first constructed Dr. Light almost wouldn't let him be commercially sold, despite the fact that Dr. Light didn't really have too much use for a freezing robot in his laboratory (Ice Man was good at making ice cream, though). However, Ice Man spent most of his good guy life at the lab, unfortunately for Ice Man, who wanted to go to the artic and show off his mad ice skillz. Just before he was scheduled to go to Alaska, Wily initiated his evil scheme. Ice Man then became one of Wily's most loyal workers, as was the rest of Team 1. Ice Man was also principally responsible for building both Dr. Cossack's castle and Dr. Wily's fourth Skull Castle during the framing of Cossack. He was captured at the end of that scheme and sent to the robot museum.

Ice Man was rescued from the robot museum shortly after MM7, and has not been back since then, as Wily upgraded his battle A.I. During Okkusenman, Ice Man was destroyed by Bass shortly after the latter's betrayal, only for his parts to be recovered by Signal Man. Forced into Cain servitude, he spent much of his captivity expanding Dr. Cain's cave base with Hard Man - it was easier to destroy the rock in the way when it was frozen. Ice Man was grateful to Dr. Cain for rebuilding him, but he still likes Wily better.


	17. For Family

It was two hours before the door to the A.I. lab opened again. During those hours, Auto kept repairing his robots, but at a slower pace. He kept looking over at the A.I. lab, wishing both silently and aloud that someone would explain what was going on. Roll worked too, and said nothing. She didn't answer any of Auto's half retorical questions. While she could admit some curiosity, it didn't amount to much. Roll just kept working, and kept her mouth shut.

She did look up every so often to check on Crystal Bot. Proto Man was Roll's brother, but you might guess otherwise to look at Crystal. The auburn robot was shaking. She was trying to work on getting Heat Man into display-ready condition for the robot museum, but she wasn't making much progress. Turmoil and confusion ran over her face, and any given moment she looked as if she were only seconds away from tearing up. Sonata scrubbed listlessly at Heat Man's scorch marks, not doing a very good job even with all the extra Carbo-Scrub she used.

Wave Man was gone; he'd taken Star Man up to the space station to finish being repaired, and Galaxy Man had gone with them. That left the place silent and forlorn. Auto's eyes frequently went over to his secret project, the machine covered in tarp over in the front corner. Every time he did, his mood darkened a little. Roll knew what it was. It was the Proto Jet, a machine that served as Rush or Treble for Proto Man. Roll shivered and avoided looking in that direction again.

Finally though, the door to the A.I. lab in question opened, and Mega Man emerged, moving slowly and heading towards the comm station. Bass came out as well, fast and very grim. He headed straight for his technician, a much easier path now that more of the robot masters were cleared out of the way.

"Crystal," he said. "Where's that automated machine?"

His tone told his mood: impatient and angry. Crystal Bot quickly set aside her scrub and went over to the only empty repair table in the lab. It was close to the A.I. labs, so Crystal Bot gestured toward it.

"There it is." Sonata knew better than to keep Bass waiting. "I'll have to check you again. After that attack-"

"Just hurry it up." Bass growled and got up on the table. "I want to be in stable condition before nightfall."

Bass didn't wait for his technician to answer him. He shut down, leaving Crystal Bot to examine him and figure out how much damage Blues had done when he shot Bass in the eyes. Crystal was only relieved by the dark robot's quick exit from the conscious world: she didn't want to put up with a grumpy Bass. She quietly got to work.

Mega Man was as blue as his armor, and more so when he looked up at the expectant eyes of the others. Sighing, he waved over Roll and Auto. Crystal Bot was still working, but her tools grew quieter, and she glanced his way. Mega Man took a deep breath. What he had to do next wasn't going to be easy, but it had to be done. Before he knew it, Roll took his hand, clasping it firmly as she lent courage to her brother. Mega Man could only give her the vaguest of smiles.

Rock cleared his throat.

"Okay, I want you to hear this from me, and not somewhere else. Proto Man...during the Gamma crisis he killed a security guard named Richard Copenhagen."

Other than the sound of Crystal Bot's wrench hitting the floor, the lab was entirely silent, allowing Mega Man to explain the whole horrible truth about the loner robot they all cared about so much.

-t-

Roll liked riding on Rush. Normally she never did, especially not outside of the lab. She was usually afraid she would fall off. However, this time she was with Mega Man. She held on behind him, her arms tight around his waist. Roll wished Rush was a bigger dog; as much as she tried not to look down, it was hard to resist. Monstropolis was at least two hundred yards as they passed above it to the suburbs. She held onto Mega Man more tightly.

Rock was lost in his own thoughts. He occasionally gave Rush some directions, but other than that was silent. He didn't know what to say. The business at hand was very serious, and Roll could hardly blame him. She had nothing to say either.

"Thanks for coming with me, Roll." Mega Man said, breaking the nervous silence. "You didn't have to."

"Of course I did." Roll let out a breath. She didn't realize she'd been holding it in. "What kind of sister would I be if I didn't?"

Mega Man smiled a bit, wishing he could be as calm as his sister. He took all the encouragement he could out of her presense. He would need it. But even without his sister Mega Man knew what he had to do, and he would do it with or without her. It was the right thing to do. Rock's heart was bound up in cold resolve. The circumstances were terrible, but these were the circumstances that life had to go on from. That was why Mega Man was going to talk to Tessa Copenhagen, the widow of the man his brother killed.

"I have to say, Roll, you've been taking this whole situation a lot better than I have." Rock noted. "I'm very proud of you."

_One death isn't much compared to the Maverick virus, and I kept that a secret. I didn't realize how similar Blues and Zero really are._

Roll shivered, but resisted saying any of that to Rock. "Proto Man is my brother too. Besides, this was your idea. In my book, there's no robot in the world braver than you. I'd...I'd rather fight Wily then have to do this by myself!"

Mega Man chucked faintly. He reached down and touched his sister's hand. "Let's hope you never have to fight anyone. Oh, we're almost there. Rush, do you see it?"

"Rwoof!"

Rock had been in this part of Monstropolis several times over the years, and he'd noticed this house before even without knowing who lived inside. It was a cute little home with blue vinyl siding and pink azaelia bushes out front. Mega Man remembered it because so few homes had blue vinyl siding. It wasn't at all vogue. He could almost hear Roll sneering behind him. Even in these circumstances she couldn't help but be grossed out at the oddity of that color.

Tessa knew they were coming. Mega Man had the foresight to call, at least. It was the very first thing he'd done after calling up Reyes and clarifying everything between them. Rock wanted to know everything the government had on his brother. If Proto Man couldn't have the same status in his mind than before, then Mega Man was going to make sure he knew exactly the kind of robot his older brother was, with clear and open eyes. No matter how much it hurt him.

Rush landed on the sidewalk in front of the home,. The sibling robots got down, letting the dog convert into his normal mode and happily shake away the feel of jet mode..

"You stay out here, Rush." Mega Man gave him a quick rub on the head. "Roll and I will be out later."

Rush barked compliantly. He sniffed around the sidewalk, finding himself a quiet place to sit. He barked once more to Rock and wagged his tail. He was settled in and ready to wait.

"Good boy."

All that remained was to go to the simple, boring, perfectly normal suburban door. It was an imposing sight. Had any Wily machine truly been more frighting than this? Any enemy? Any disaster? Roll frighted, afraid to go forward. Mega Man, however, did not. He went on to the door, ignoring all the ghosts of fear and his own internal turmoil. He had done his grieving the day before (poor Bass) and now was ready to face what honor required of him. Roll, seeing his bravery, could hardly stay behind. She scampered up behind her brother, standing nervously behind him. Rock glanced back and smiled a little. At least Roll was learning to trust him again.

Mega Man rang the doorbell. The front curtains opened a bit, settling down again only a second later. Mega Man was too recognisable for it to take long to identify him. The door before them opened to reveal a middle aged woman, early forties, who had lovely brown hair cut in short style that waved up and curled a little at the ears. She was little heavy-set, but perfectly adorable in her casual pink shirt and jeans. Admittedly, the woman would have looked better without the sadness in her eyes; they were heavy with melancholy, and the woman sighed deeply.

"Mega Man. Roll." she nodded at them in greeting. "Please come in."

"Thank you, Mrs. Copenhagen."

Mega Man and his sister entered the home. Tessa led them into a nice living room, perfectly magazine with its peach walls and tan furniture. The coffee table even had a few homey books about decorating and cooking on it. The chimney was the perfect focus of the room, especially with its dark brown stones. Mega Man spied a family portrait on the mantle, one that almost broke his heart looking at it. It must have been taken several years ago, as it featured a very young little girl and a man that Rock recognised as Richard.

Tessa silently indicated the couch, and the robot siblings politely sat down. Mega Man tried to be relaxed as possible, but Roll was too nervous to be completely polite. She sat with her hands in her lap, wringing them and hoping that her brother knew what he was doing.

"No one's called me by that name in years." Tessa sat down in a cushy chair next to the fireplace. "It's Mrs. Brown now. I remarried about six years ago. Leila didn't take that as well as she should have, but she always was very attached to her father."

"Where is Leila now?" Mega Man asked. "I would like to talk with her."

"I didn't think that was a good idea." Tessa frowned. "So I sent her out with some friends. She's a very sensitive girl. Look, Mega Man, if you're here to ask me to talk to the government about showing mercy to Proto Man, you can forget it. Leila is...well, very traumatized by all of this. I at least want some justice to be done for her sake."

"No, Ma'am, that's not it at all." Mega Man shook his head. "We're just here to offer our sympathy, and well, to gain some understanding. Until yesterday I didn't know anything about this. My brother's life is all a mystery to me. Please, tell me about Richard."

Tessa seemed to relax a little, but as she settled a little more comfortably into the chair, her eyes withdrew into thought. "He was...perfect, really. Typical high school sweethearts, we were. After that, a quick marriage, and Leila came along. I had my job as a writer, and Richard was doing well enough getting by in our security job. When he was hired by Dr. Light's storage company, we thought things were going to get better. He was making a lot more money. We bought this house then."

Mrs. Brown glanced all along the room, lost in memory. "I never wanted to leave this place. Richard worked so hard to get us here. It feels almost like betraying him to move. Well, says the woman who remarried. Actually, it was Proto Man who had to convince Leila to let me get married again. She was so angry at me. He talked to her and explained everything to her - a woman does get lonely - and he even showed her an extensive background seach on Roger. Roger saw it later, and he said to look at it would make everyone think he led a very boring life."

"It sounds like Proto Man cared about her a lot."

"He did. That was very clear." Tessa managed a faded smile. She was still thinking of all the good times. "I remember when I first met him. A neighbor of mine that used to live two houses down was supposed to be watching Leila, but it turned out that my little girl was too busy hosting a tea party for Proto Man in the backyard to go and tell our neighbor that she was alright. I caught her pouring motor oil in my good china for him, and she had him wearing a pink feather boa and a tiara. That's what he deserved for buying her an entire pack of Oreos. She had half the thing eaten by the time I got home."

Roll couldn't help but find that funny, forgeting her nervousness long enough to giggle. Noticing the other two looking at her, she quickly tried to stifle it. "Um, Proto Man told me that story the other day, but he didn't tell me about the tiara."

"Or why he was there, I suppose." Tessa sighed deeply, sinking a bit more into the chair. "Proto Man has been such a good friend to us for many years. I'm almost angry at him for simply telling her. He should have talked to me first, but...I couldn't promise my reaction would have been any better. To see Leila over the years when Proto Man would show up...it made her so happy to see him. I always wondered why he always took such good care of us. We couldn't have afforded this house without his help. I'm torn between wanting to hate him and wanting to forget everything. I just don't understand how someone as considerate as he was to us could be responsible for everything I went through being a single mother."

"Our brother...wasn't always a good guy." Mega Man explained. Tessa was having a hard time speaking, and now it was Rock's turn to struggle to talk. He couldn't imagine that any topic would hurt him this much. "You got to see the best of him, and so did I. A lot of things went wrong with his creation. Being the first sentient robot, basically everything with him was experimental. He was very lonely in the labs, and it didn't help that two of the only three people he ever got to talk to were government agents that treated him like a machine or a child. I don't mean to excuse anything he's done, but he didn't have a good start or a lot of understanding when he ran away from home. I don't know much about this because it was before my creation, but apparently one of the first people he met when he ran away was Dr. Wily. You can imagine how that would turn out."

The human nodded in solemnity. "I see. Before I knew who was responsible, I tried hard to let go. Being angry at anyone wasn't going to bring my husband back. I knew a lot of other innocent people were casualties of Dr. Wily's cruelty, and it's easier to think of things that way. I'm just so mad that Proto Man would do this to Leila. She's been traumatized this whole week through, and this is the first day she hasn't spent it moping in her room. I wish he'd never spoken to us." Tessa's voice caught in her throat, and she had to clear it and force herself not to cry. "Thank you for coming, though. This is horrible to say, but you're the only reason she left the house."

Seeing she was starting to cry, Mega Man had a hard time resisting grief himself. "Please, Mrs. Brown, if there's anything we can do to help, please let us know."

Tessa's breath was heavy, though she tried to keep control. "I don't think there's really anything you can do. All I want is for Leila to be happy again...Proto Man was there for her in ways no one else could be. He was her hero. He saved her from this idiot boy her freshman year...ugh! I wish he hadn't done this! Why did he have to tell her?"

Tears streaked down the woman's face. She forced her eyes closed, squinching them down tightly. "I mourned Richard so long. I don't want to go through that again. It was worse for Leila. Proto Man was her hero...this is the worst possible outcome. To believe in someone and then find out such a terrible thing is just too much."

Mega Man's gaze settled down to his lap. "Yeah...I know the feeling..."

It was silent for a moment, and Roll wondered if she should break her silence, or if she could even do so without causing offense. She decided her best bet was patience. It wasn't too long before Tessa sniffed, pulling her tissues out of her pocket as she tried to calm down. She'd had sense enough not to put on any mascara that morning.

"Where is Proto Man now?" Tessa asked. "Has he been caught?"

"No, he hasn't." Mega Man sighed, having no desire to go over that again.

"If he is caught, what will happen to him?"

"I don't know. With all the charges against him, there's a chance he could be deleted. He's changed for the better these past several years, so there's a possibility he'll just go through a memory wipe. He'll still have the same A.I., but he'll have to start over from blank. That's about the best that can be expected."

"That sounds worse than deletion." Tessa said. "Imagine everyone knowing what sort of person you are without even knowing yourself."

Mega Man nodded. "The robots I've seen that done to turn out alright. They are programmed by directive to avoid the crimes they committed earlier."

"That's good. It wouldn't do any good to delete their memories if they just went around and did it all over again."

The conversation went on longer, and in the end Roll was glad that she had come. In a way. Sometimes Roll felt like such a coward, and this was definitely one of those times. In the end, things turned out well, or as well as they could be. There was plenty of crying and closure, and as the robots left the little home, Roll couldn't help but feel that Mega Man was indeed the bravest robot in the world.

-t-

Crystal Bot was antsy. Being in the lab helping Auto put together the robot masters to send to the robot museum calmed her some, but today she found herself impatient. Working on robot after robot was good and fine in its own way, but she had too much on her mind. Ever since she'd discovered why Mega Man and Roll were leaving the house, she'd found herself both horrified and..._impressed_. Out of his own volition, Mega Man went to go apologize to the Copenhagen widow for his brother's sake. The very notion of such a thing frightened Crystal Bot, and she remembered all too well the inadequacies of her tacked together mind.

And Proto Man. He had never been so angry in her presense before. Him attacking Bass had scared her to death even though she knew Bass was the stronger robot. She wasn't afraid for her boss' sake, but if Proto Man could be furious enough to lose control like that, then there was no telling what he was capable of. It frightened her even worse that he had killed a human. There were those that said a robot life was equal to a human one, but Crystal Bot knew that it wasn't true, especially when robots can be repaired of most of their problems. Healing humans was both a more delicate and scarier magic, a magic that was beyond Crystal's intellect.

That wasn't the major topic in her head. If that alone were the only problem, then the soothing motions of beating armor back into shape and welding it back on its proper robot skeleton would chase this from her mind and allow her the comfort of distraction. No, this time it was Dr. Wily. As much as she tried to ignore the thought, it kept coming back to her that Dr. Wily was in the hospital trying to survive. He had a heart condition. It was fatefully ironic, that. Up till then it was questionable that he actually had a heart. Not to Crystal. In his own way, he had seemed to care about her. Hadn't they spent years together as fake father and fake daughter? The trouble was that it was all fake. Wily wasn't her creator.

"Crystal!" Auto called out. "How's Bubble Man coming?"

"He's almost done!" Crystal Bot said, hammering a bit more of his armor back into place. "How many more do we have left?"

"I just finished Signal Man." Auto said. "Ice Man is done, and so is Demi. Once we get them with the others, that leaves just Commando and Metal Man."

"Can you get those guys for me? I got stuff I need to be doing for Bass once I'm done with this guy."

"And leave me all alone? Aww, I like working with you."

Crystal Bot giggled. "I like workin' with you too. I just got lots of stuff to do, that's all."

"Fine, break my heart, why don't you?"

She knew he was teasing, and she giggled again. Auto was a lot of fun to work with. No wonder Dr. Light created him. Crystal started working faster with Bubble Man. After all, he was just going to be set up in the robot museum. He didn't need to be waterproof; he just had to stand there. Finishing up with a quick weld, Crystal banged on Bubble Man's armor.

"Done!" she sang. "Dub! Come and get this guy and bring him to the truck!"

A freshly repaired Dub squealed in obedience, crawling across the now empty repair tables to grab Heat Man in his claws and bear him away like a piece of food borne away by an ant. This done, Crystal rushed into the nearest A.I. lab - not the one that Proto Man had attacked Bass in the day before. This next one, though it was exactly identical as the other A.I., didn't get so much as a shudder from Crystal Bot as she tightly closed the doors behind her.

Alone at last! Crystal Bot began pacing. This issue wasn't going to go away until she decided something about it. Just being with Dr. Wily in Dr. Cain's base had reawakened something in Crystal Bot that she could have sworn was dead: her love for him as his little girl. As much misery as he had caused her, she just couldn't bring herself to all out hate Wily. She had been his "daughter" for so much of her life that thinking of him in a different way was still too hard, especially with him being ill. Then again, he was cruel and heartless, and even his so called fatherly love hadn't stopped him from turning her into a mechaniloid. As much as she worried for him, her heart wouldn't forget the terrible things he had done.

"I've got to talk this out!" she exclaimed to no one. "Like they say on TV! Okay, okay. Um, option one, I go to the hospital and see him to make him feel better. Option two, I forget the whole thing and let him suffer because he's a meanie. Hmm...hmm..."

Crystal Bot rubbed her chin and started pacing faster. What was the better option?

"Okay. I...I don't want him to be alone. That's so scary, 'cause he might die." Crystal Bot gasped. "Oh no, if he dies, then I might be there and see it! Scarier! Aaah!"

That alone almost solved the dilemma right away (and almost sent Crystal Bot hiding in a cabinet), but the thought of him being alone when he died was the scariest of all. She managed to stop herself from pulling all the computer parts from the nearest cabinet and diving in for shelter. Shakily, she forced herself to continue her pacing. She had to focus.

"So...on the one hand, Wily is my grandpa and he let me blow stuff up." she pondered. "But on the other hand, he turned me into a mechaniloid. He...he killed my father...but...there's nothing I can do to help my daddy. I can at least help my grandpa because he's not going to live very long. Ugh, Forte's won't be happy if I do. Grandpa was always so mean to him. But maybe...maybe I can get Grandpa to apologize to him! Yes..."

Crystal Bot wasn't naiive. She indignantly huffed. Wily was every bit as stubborn as Bass. Getting him to apologize to anyone he'd wronged in the slightest - even as little as a hateful glance - would be like fishes breathing lava or a rain made entirely of ice cream. Not possible in the slightest, and equally amazing.

"Why is everybody I know so stubborn?" Crystal Bot pouted and plopped on the floor. "This is so hard!"

It was hard. At every moment Crystal Bot thought herself convinced that she would stay away, up popped heart-rending visions of a lonely Dr. Wily in the hospital. Then again, as soon as she thought she would go visit him, she found herself thinking of everything did. The man was horrible, and many people had suffered because of him. If Proto Man's situation had taught her nothing, it taught her that bad guys were called that not because they got to blow things up, but because they were genuinely bad people. Crystal Bot felt herself lucky for being a tech-bot. If she had been a fighter like Blues, then Wily might have wanted her to do the horrible things that Blues had done.

"Dr. Wily is a bad man..." Crystal Bot whimpered. "He really is...but he's my family."

The girl-bot leaned back and lay there on the floor, making sure to pat down her dress as she did so. She thought of Mega Man, and how he loved his brother no matter what. Even now it was easy to see that he wanted to help Blues in whatever way he could. Crystal Bot knew that was what family meant, though of course Wily was far worse than Blues, and it was his fault Proto Man had fallen so far.

She stared up at the ceiling and let the confused thoughts wander back and forth in her mind. If she wasn't supposed to go visit Wily then she at least wanted a logical reason why, a reason that would make her weak and sympathetic innards settle down and stop bugging her. As evil as the man was, she knew that she still cared. It drove her nuts.

"Ceiling..." she whispered for no particular reason. One second later she popped up she popped up from the floor. "Hey...wait a minute, that's right!"

Now she remembered it. In all the excitement of Zero, Cain, and Proto Man, Crystal Bot had forgotten all about her made up religion: the Church of Science. There were no ceremonies or special occasions to this religion, and only one line of theology: the more one learns about science, the more one knows about God. Crystal Bot jumped to her feet, giddy and happy as she clapped her hands.

"That's right, I don't have to worry! I just have to ask! Science is the answer!" she squealed. "Okay, so I have to set up an experiment. But it has to be biological...hm, the side of Science I don't use. Hm..."

Sonata snapped her fingers. It came to her! Quickly she ran over to the nearest computer and activated the monitor. Her fingers quickly worked the controls, dialing in a number and an extension number in a matter of seconds. The screen made a noise, and a red line went across it. That meant the call was starting to go through. After a few rings, an image appeared on the screen. It was an image of Bright Man.

"Crystal Bot?" Bright Man looked up, clearly irritated. "How in the world do you know this number? I'm trying to work on an experiment here."

"I know." Crystal Bot got up on the repair table so she could both see the monitor and swing her legs like a little girl to work her adorable magic. It was more out of habit than anything else; it never did more than annoy Bright Man, though that in itself didn't displease her. "I wanna know about your experiment. Whatcha' doin'?"

"You're really curious?"

"Yeah. Tell me, tell me, tell me! Or I can just keep calling you and bugging you until you do."

"Ugh, fine. If you're going to be annoying, then I suppose I'll get this over with."

Bright Man moved to a large table, and the perspective of the camera went with him. He was in the greenhouse where Toad Man usually worked, and through the greenhouse walls Crystal could see that it was nighttime in northern Russia. The plants crowded around Bright Man, creating a sort of green cloud of leaves around him. The bright robot's work lay on a round lab table in the middle of it all, and it was a neatly organized mess of petri dishes, beakers, and a large microscope.

"As you know, Dr. Cossack has been working on a cure for cancer for many years." Bright Man told her. "I'm working on a plant-based enzyme. If I can engineer this enzyme to destroy certain cells and leave others alone, then it's possible I can engineer it to destroy cancerous cells."

"Okay, so what are you doing right, right now?"

"I'm testing the algae samples I collected. If my experiment succeeds, the enzyme should target one species of the algae in the dish, but not the other." Bright Man replied, "I was producing the cells while you were here. If you recall, that was part of the data you ever so kindly _deleted out of my memory_."

"Aw, I said I was sorry!"

"Hmph! Anyway, I was just about to take a look through the microscope and see how the algae is working out. I suppose you're finally interested in this work of mine?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, please!"

Bright Man nodded, artfully picking up a petri dish labelled "Expmnt #33 - ENZ1A" and stuck it under the viewing lens of the microscope. Bright Man glanced over at Crystal Bot before he peered through the machine. She only looked up at him hopefully, waiting on his reply. Shrugging, Bright Man gave it a look.

"Ah!" His mouth opened in a cheery smile. "It worked! The correct algae cells are completely overwhelmed and the others are fine! Delightful! I must wake Dr. Cossack! Excuse me, Crystal...Crystal?"

She was gone. Bright Man tapped his monitor to see if it was still working. It was just fine, and it showed nothing but the empty A.I. lab without so much as a screwdriver left where the girl-bot had been sitting. Bright Man sighed and turned off the monitor. He had better things to do than wonder where the silly girl-bot had run off to.

-t-

It wasn't as hard to find them as he thought it would be. Chill Man had one of Dr. Cain's tracers in him, and even though eventually the signal had cut out, Epic Man was able to get enough of a lead to figure out where the last of the Wily robots were. It shocked Epic Man that even though Chill Man and Elec Man had been under Dr. Cain's authority so long, they seemed to be following their own whims and doing something previously planned.

In any case, the trail led Epic Man to an abandoned warehouse out in the more northern parts of California. Epic Man forgot how he got there; he didn't care in the slightest. All he knew was that he had evaded authorities and found them.

The midnight-blue robot hugged Algorhythm Man's remains closer. This part of California wasn't much more than open fields and tall grass. The mountains hid him from the villages nearby, but Epic wasn't happy about his chances of being seen. Who knew what manner of humans lurked on those mountains? Epic Man cautiously walked through the tall grass, trying to avoid the temptation to jump and make himself more obvious. This way was slower, but it was safer.

"Don't worry, Al, we're almost there!" Epic whispered to his defunct brother. "I swear I'm going to kill those 'good guys' for doing this to you!"

He shifted Algorhythm Man over his shoulder, glancing about in each direction. There didn't seem to be anyone around, and his sensors didn't detect any vibrations in the near area, other than in the warehouse itself. Epic Man looked over in its direction again, and had to grit his teeth to keep from screaming. There, standing directly in front of him, was Shadow Man. 

"Please don't do that." Epic Man said. "I'm half out of my wits as it is."

"Come with me." was the shadow's only reply.

Epic Man obeyed. He followed the ninja-bot into the old warehouse, and while the place was large, it was completely decrepit. Apparently part of it used to house a factory or something of the kind: the entire right side of the building was nothing but an odd assortment of old pipes and technological bric-a-brac that Epic Man couldn't possibly identify. The Wily-bots didn't seem to be able to either. They just ignored the vast complexities of older victorian technology and gathered over to the left, an empty passageway with very high ceilings, containing nothing more than the pillars that supported it.

And the Wily-bots, of course. Epic Man caught a glance of Chill Man as he entered the door of the warehouse. The menacing ice robot glared at Epic Man, who in turn tried to ignore him.

"It's just security..." Epic Man whispered to his brother. "Nothing to worry about..."

Hard Man, Nitro Man (in his normal form), and Elec Man were all gathered together in the midst of the empty building. Shadow Man departed from sight as soon as Epic Man was near the other robots. He wasn't gone, though. He waited in his usual, spooky way, ready to attack if Epic Man had any foolish notions. Epic Man, however, had only one foolish notion and that didn't involve fighting the robot masters. As the menacing Wily-bots surrounded him, Epic Man placed Algorhythm Man on the floor before them and got down on his knees.

"I...well, all of you should know me by now." Epic Man said, his voice wavering. "I came here today because...I ask for your help. My creator is arrested and I have no home or repairman to turn to. This is my brother. I beg of you, repair him. I shall pay for this favor with my service. I'll do anything you ask: steal, destroy...anything. Just...repair him."

Chill Man laughed out loud, his voice shrill. Hard Man thought it was funny too, and his deep voice boomed out like a stereo. Shadow Man was also amused, but the smiling glare of his eyes was a frightful thing, and if Epic Man had known about it he would be glad that he couldn't see the ninja-bot.

"Wow, he's come to cut us a deal." Nitro Man laughed. "A bargain with Wily robots. Haha!"

Epic Man didn't dare smile. Already his wish seemed to sour in his heart; it didn't look like anyone was interested in his proposal. However, that wasn't going to stop him from focusing on Elec Man. Epic Man knew that Elec Man was the real leader of the Wily numbers. It didn't matter what the others thought so long as Elec Man was pleased. The yellow-masked robot had a large smile on his face, but his teeth might as well have all been razor-sharp fangs. There was no way of telling whether or not Elec Man was considering his deal. The Team 1 robot approached, and he crouched down beside the kneeling Epic Man.

"You really want us to repair him, don't you?" Elec Man said. "Heh. I'll show you something. Get up."

Epic Man did, though his first action was to reach for his brother.

"Leave him. He's fine where he is."

The other robots' evil grins clearly indicated otherwise, but what was the Cain-bot to do? He simply followed behind Elec Man further on down the platform, not daring to look back in case someone was waiting for him to turn and see before doing something horrible to Algorhythm Man. Elec Man led him further down the empty left side of the warehouse to where the arched roof lowered. An enclosed automated machine could just barely be seen behind the metal beams. The Wily robot didn't pay it any mind, and he went past it without remark. Epic Man glanced at it, but could see no one inside.

Elec Man stopped at a computer wall panel just behind the automated machine, and pushed a green button. A grey plastic panel retracted to reveal a keyboard, and Elec Man typed in several things.

"How much do you know about Zero, Epic Man?" the sound of the typing was almost melodic as it went on with his voice. "How far did Dr. Cain get hacking into him?"

"Not far at all." Epic Man tempted fate and looked back at the other robots, inwardly cursing the very thought of them hurting his brother. "If Crystal Bot got anywhere then I saw nothing of it."

"Heh. He was designed that way. Come here, let me show you some specs." Elec Man moved aside, gesturing for the Cain-bot to come forward. "Look."

Epic Man's first glance was a suspicious glare in Elec Man's direction, but he was curious. He neared the computer monitor, at first not really understanding what was before him. Then all of a sudden it clicked: those numbers weren't for the wrong specs. They were the true energy capabilities of Dr. Wily's most powerful creation.

"That's...this is all wrong!" Epic Man cried out in terror. "No! The numbers don't go this high! It's simply not possible! You're making this up!"

The Cain-bot snapped around to Elec Man, who only folded his arms with a dashing smile. He let the grimacing and furious Cain-bot fume for a moment. Elec Man was as confident as if he himself had built Zero. He leaned forward into Epic Man's face, speaking in a quiet, almost peaceful voice.

"Why would I bother doing that?" Elec Man said. "Why am I worried about impressing you? Think about it a moment. If I have a robot this powerful at my disposal, what do I need you for?"

It sank in. Epic Man glanced at Elec Man only once, seeing there an immense disdain. It was as if Wily himself was in Elec Man's gaze, exploding with screaming laughter. There was no need for any more mockery. Epic Man knew his answer. If only there was someone else to help Algorhythm!

"Nothing...you don't need me at all..."

Elec Man smacked him upside his head, snickering. "No, you idiot, I need you to help me get Zero out of government hands. Duh."

"Stop that!" Epic Man tried to stop growling. "Wait, what?"

"I accept your deal." Elec Man said. "I'll repair you and Al in exchange for your service. Heh, we were actually going to find you anyway. Didn't know you'd be bringing little bro along. That's even better. Wily had plans for you two, they just have to be adjusted a little for the circumstances. You guys get upgraded, and then it's your job to help us get him. As soon as we have him, you're free to go do as you wish."

"You mean, Wily was thinking about me?" Epic Man couldn't help but be elated. "This is too wonderful! But...I never expected..."

"Of course not." Elec Man started typing more at the computer. "Here we go. These are the stats for you and Algorhythm Man right here."

Epic Man took a good look, shaking his head. "I'd be more impressed if I hadn't seen Zero's first."

"Exactly."

Elec Man cheerfully shoved Epic Man to the side and went to the automated machine. With the push of the right buttons, the hydraulics came to life and pushed the huge lid up. Inside was nothing more than a small, one person (robot) sized metal bench. Elec Man downloaded the preprogrammed settings into the automated machine, then swept his arms like a butler showing his master into his mansion.

"In you go!" he announced. "You're first, then Algorhythm Man."

Epic Man hesitated. "So how do I know you're going to let us go free once you have Zero?"

"Why not?" Elec Man shrugged. "It's not as if we'll need you once Zero is operational. Besides, at worst you'll be working for Wily. I thought you liked him."

"Better than other humans." Epic Man sucked in a breath as he stared into the dark abyss that was the automated machine. "Though I really must remind myself that he too is just a human..."

Epic Man went inside and sat on the bench. It wasn't as if he had any better options. As the heavy door sank down and clicked into place, Epic Man began to wonder why he wasn't happy. Here he sat recieving upgrades from the greatest mind in robotics still alive. All the same, something seemed wrong. Something inside Epic Man was afraid; it objected to his actions with a stubborn persistence.

_Dratted Cain programming! I just know it's interfering! _Epic Man seethed in the dark. _I'll show that Cain! He'll regret what he's done to me! Humans? Bah! A world without robots? A world without humans sounds much better!_

He shut down. The robotic arms were beginning to uncoil themselves from the walls of the automated machine, and he had to be ready.

\\\\\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- Sad chapter, huh? I'm sure Proto Lawrence, I mean RedAxl, will like it. :D I don't have too much to say about this one. Sad, sad stuff. Though feel free to review and stroke my outrageously large ego.

Character profiles!

=====Tessa Copenhagen Brown

**"I'll bake some muffins for you, dear."**

Good point: strong in spirit

Bad point: unambitious

Likes: her family

Dislikes: dead rats

Tessa has lived in California most of her life. She was born in a small town fairly close to the beach. Her mother worked as a secretary part time for the filing company that her father ran. While her mother was a very loving person, one of those magical people that can juggle work and being a mother at the same time, her father was a distant fellow. Throughout most of her teen years Tessa felt very distant from him, and she never really understood why this was. Tessa used to have pet rats, but unfortunately they died from disease while she was at summer camp. Her older sister Teresa decided to play a prank on her, and left them in Tessa's bed to discover when she got home. Much mayhem followed, especially when their mother found out. The room smelled heavily of disinfectant for decades to come.

Tessa likes simpler things. She idealized her mother very much, and enjoys baking and taking care of people. During high school she met Richard Copenhagen, the love of her life. Things started off pretty slow their sophmore year, as Richard didn't really know what he wanted to do with himself. He ended up following in his father's footsteps to become a cop, and as he started expressing this interest, Tessa was agreeable to it. Notedly, she didn't quite understand the danger of it, but her town wasn't known for its high crime rate anyway.

Once he had his career settled, Richard felt more comfortable dating. Tessa went through college as Richard got started on his career, and they were married. They moved to Monstropolis when Leila was two, and Richard gained his job watching over Light Laboratories. After a miscarriage, Tessa decided she was going to get a job as a typist so that she could get out of the house, and her mother consented to watch over baby Leila while she was at work.

With a pay raise from his work and movement over to the Gamma project, Richard finally felt like the family was getting somewhere. Just after his daughter's eighth birthday, he put down the down payment on the house they currently live in. It wasn't long before Wily finally started his scheme to steal Gamma. Richard's death almost destroyed the family. Tessa came down with depression, and Leila, very close to her father, started exhibiting violent behavior to the point where Grandma had a hard time watching her. Proto Man showed up with the money to save the house, plus some extra for the family to live on.

Since then, Tessa has done everything she can to keep her family afloat. She hated being a single mother. During that time she met Roger Brown, himself a widower for a year. Ten years older than her, Roger already had his family, three boys, two of which were grown and the third almost so. He asked her out as a rebound from his loss, and he ended up confessing this on the first date. Surprisingly, Tessa was okay with that. Six months later, they ran off to Vegas and got married.

Tessa didn't tell Mega Man this, but it was Proto Man that actually convinced her to get remarried. He had to tell her not to punish herself for something that wasn't her fault; she didn't have to be alone forever. But in any case, Tessa and Roger get along very well, and Roger ended up giving his larger home to his eldest son and moving in with Tessa after their marriage. Since then, they've had as good a marriage as they can, and they love each other very much. Roger has since gotten on Leila's good side. Tessa and Roger have no children together, and they're fine with that.

=====Elec Man

**"Feel the power of my Thunder Beam!"**

Good point: Responsibility

Bad point: Twisted

Likes: Guitar

Dislikes: Rubber products

Elec Man. This guy is so many people's favorite character. Not so much for me, but he is pretty cool. I like how he wears a mask even though he doesn't need it. As a kid I was for some reason under the impression that he had long hair. Don't ask me why.

Elec Man is the leader of the Wily robots, despite the fact that Dr. Light had more to do with building him than Dr. Wily. Elec Man is very intelligent, and even the smarter robot masters like Sword Man and Shadow Man knew to follow him without question, as Elec Man was very good at interpreting what Dr. Wily wanted.

Before his change into a bad guy, Elec Man was Mega Man's best friend. They did a lot together, including playing soccer and working on Dr. Light's experiments. Elec Man was responsible for powering the lab, and he liked his job. Originally Dr. Light planned on creating a line of Elec Man-ish mechaniloids that would power Monstropolis, but these were taken over by Dr. Wily before their completion and turned into lightning traps or (the orb baddies) that flit around Elec Man's hideout tower.

Nothing remained of Elec Man's friendly personality when he was reprogrammed. He sought to please Wily in any way he could, and very often let his position of favor get to his head. Most of the time Elec Man avoided the robot museum, but at the end of MM6 he and much of Team 1 were captured and put into the robot museum. When Wily broke them out in MM7, Elec Man never returned to it, spending the rest of his life aggravating society. During the events of Okkusenman he was almost entirely destroyed when Bass betrayed Dr. Wily, but luckily for him Signal Man was very good at repairing robots. Like several other robots, Elec Man ended up stranded at Cain's secret base when Dr. Cain's first plans failed. Elec Man relishes the chance to get back at the good guys, but he still thinks Dr. Cain is an idiot.


	18. Okkusenman

Dr. Wily didn't dream. All the same, his sleep wasn't the deep drink of darkness that dreamless sleep normally entailed. He fidgeted and grunted, unable to get comfortable even in his relaxed state. He didn't enjoy being in a drug-induced haze.

Wily awoke, still foggy from the medicines. He lay there, blinking and staring at the boring ceiling. He remembered he was still in the hospital. He had no desire to move, and lay like a pudding in his sheets. As much as the medicines did to cloud some of his senses, he could still feel a strange tug in his chest. Wily figured it was psychosomatic, and so he tried to think of something else.

The room didn't help in this regard. It was a boring room with its boring green walls and the pathetically dull view from the window: the other side of the hospital across from the ambulance parking. Boring. Even worse, only the local channels ever worked on the TV. Occasionally court TV was on, and Wily, left with nothing else to do, often found himself strangely attracted to it. Not today. The very thought of belligerent landlords arguing with their irresponsible tenants just didn't appeal to him. And it wasn't going to come on for a while. The sun was setting, and that meant he'd slept through it.

A puff of air escaped Wily's nose, and it was the closest thing he was lazily able to come to a sigh. Sleep sounded better than staring at the ceiling, so Wily started to turn on his side and get as comfortable as he could get with a tube in his arm. Only, to his surprise, his hand didn't seem to want to move.

"Muh..?" he grunted. "What's this?"

Wily opened his eyes, blinking away his fog as best he could. It took a moment, but finally he was able to see that Crystal Bot was sitting beside him, holding his hand. The girl-bot startled, but gathering her courage, she found some words to speak.

"Hi Grandpa. Are you feeling better?"

"What do you care?" Wily snatched his hand away. "Here to gloat over me? Get out!"

"Grandpa, you need someone to take care of you-"

"Get out!" Wily thundered, and his face grew red. "You betrayed me twice! Do you really think I'm happy you're here?"

"I was just going to betray Dr. Cain." she insisted, folding her arms. "It's not my fault you showed up."

"Oh, what a wonderful excuse..."

Wily turned to the window and grumbled to himself. Even this didn't entirely dissuade the girl-bot. Wringing her hands, she tried again, this time taking a gentler tone.

"Please, Grandpa, you've got to understand that I'm a good girl now." she said. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore, and that includes you. Your health isn't good, so-"

"Are you _gone _yet?" Wily snapped, turning around with the ugliest look she'd seen on his face yet. "I have nothing to say to you, and I don't want to hear anything. Just go before I have the nurse take you away."

"You stop that right now!" Crystal Bot shoved a finger at him. "You are not going to treat me that way! Don't you realize what position you're in? Being a jerk doesn't get you anything. You really think for one second that if I left anybody else would come to visit you? In fact, the only reason I'm here is because God told me to! So if you want to be cranky and a big meanie then you can do it when visiting hours are over because I'm not going anywhere! We're family, and that's what families do, so deal with it!"

Wily opened his mouth to respond, but her words stung him. Usually Wily's great and powerful ego protected him from realizing that he had no friends, but having to hear it out loud like that forced the issue to the foremost part of his mind. He settled back on his pillow, grumpily trying to decide what to do. Each face muscle rippled and warped as every grumpy thought went through his head. Finally he let out his anxieties with a sigh. He said nothing, but his posture relaxed as he gave up.

"There, that's better." her voice became a soothing coo, and she gently patted his forehead. "Now I'm going to take care of you. I talked to the doctor and he said that your heart condition can be fixed with an operation. I've got money, and if I need any more I can just sell some crystals or something. I'll pay for everything. Hmph, since you had to go make trouble, it'll be hard, but I'll try to convince the cops and stuff to let you come home with me. I'll buy a house out in the country, and I'll set it up for you and you'll stay with me and I'll take care of you. Everything will be fine."

"Don't you dare." Wily growled. "I'm too old, and dying anyway. Don't waste your money. I don't want to see the future."

"Why are you talking like that?" Crystal Bot felt she would cry. "You're my Grandpa...I can take care of you!"

"I don't need anyone to watch out for me." Wily settled his arms on his chest as he began staring off into space. "I just want to get this over with. It's bad enough I've lived a life where no one appreciated me. I don't expect anyone to change their minds now. Ha! It's too late even if they wanted to."

His devious grin confused the girl-bot a little, and she glanced backwards before speaking again. "Um, you mean Zero? Grandpa, they captured him. You know that. He's not gonna trouble anyone anymore. And if you know what's good for you, you won't either. You've gotta stop being such a meanie. You've got a lot to be happy about."

"Hrmph! Like what?"

"Well, Team 5 is doing really good. They're doing a lot of cool things on their spaceship. They even discovered this asteroid that's gonna hit Earth next year and they already came up with a way to stop it and then harvest all the cool space metals on it. Gravity Man did a lot of work on my armor too. He says that with minimalized gravity he can come up with an even stronger form of plate technology. It's really neato! Star Man is charting the path for the next sattelite launch into deep space, and he and Galaxy Man even came up with a way to make it go faster! Then Stone Man-"

"Why do I care about all that crap?" Wily snapped at her.

"Because they're your robots!" Crystal Bot said in earnest. "Aren't you impressed? Everybody can see how good a programmer you are now. Everybody says, 'that Dr. Wily sure is crazy but his robots are really smart. I wish he was a good guy'. See? People appreciate you. They would appreciate you even more if you were nice. Dr. Franklin at the REA says that Team 5 is really smart."

It was a compliment, and like all flattery it wormed its way into Dr. Wily's foul little heart. The mad scientist couldn't help having a somewhat gleeful grin.

"Those fools do appreciate my work, don't they?" Wily couldn't stop grinning. "It's about time. And what about you?"

"Mostly I've been upgrading Forte-kun." Crystal Bot made her smile a little bigger, wishing that her achievements had a little less to do with a robot Dr. Wily hated. "I increased his jump, his speed, and gave him built-in spike protection against crystal powered spikes. Me and Gravity Man are gonna work on installing that new armor I was talking about. He's got all kinds of data on the space station for me, and I can plan to do a lot more things. I'm pestering the government about letting me work on Zero, but they're being annoying! I just want to know more about Zero. I'm the closest thing to an expert on bassinium that they've got, so they should let me see! Not fair!

Wily always thought that Crystal Bot was adorable, but she was extra so when pouting. He almost smiled until his thought wandered off onto another of his creations, and then his face fell into a stale frown. "So what about Bass? Is he making himself useful for once?"

"Hush, you." Crystal Bot peered over her shoulder, then focused on the human again and cleared her throat. "Forte-kun has been just wonderful since he got on the good guy side. Dr. Cossack likes him, and he even had to be a security guard for this party Kalinka was throwing. Hee hee, they made him wear a tux! You should've seen him, Grandpa! He looked so funny!"

The mad scientist stared at her with dull eyes. "Bass...wearing a fancy suit. Please tell me he's doing something more than being an obstacle for that idiot Dr. Weinburger."

"You know that guy? He's really annoying." Crystal Bot said. "So, um, Bass mostly spent his time lookin' for Zero. He's worked really hard over at Dr. Cossack's."

"Yes, only for Dr. Cain to steal Zero out from under him." Wily huffed, shifting in his bed. "If it weren't for you he wouldn't have captured Zero again. They didn't even need his help. I suppose he can go be a security guard for that fool Cossack until he falls apart. He'll be more useful that way."

Crystal Bot looked back even longer this time, biting her lip at the back corner. Catching herself, she didn't let her head turn the whole what around, but settled again back at the mad doctor, trying to tuck him in a little tighter.

"Don't pretend like there's nothing there. You're not a good actor." Wily glared at her. "Now what are you looking at? And turn on the lights! It's too dark in here."

The girl-bot nervously pushed a button at the side of the bed, used to following orders that Dr. Wily could easily do himself. The lights popped on. Wily pushed another button on the bed to lift himself up and leaned over to look past the girl-bot. That sapped whatever manners Wily was using in the past five minutes. Bass' return expression was no less ugly.

"It's Forte-kun." Crystal said needlessly, nervously fretting her hair. "He's here to watch out for me. He said he wouldn't let me come alone because you might do something bad."

"So he bothered to show up?" Wily ignored Crystal, glaring still at his creation. "Well, I don't want you here. Get out!"

Bass didn't budge. He glowered at his master, furious enough to shake. He was there for Dr. Light in the hospital, and that was his greatest honor. To be there with his hateful creator, the man that had made every previous year of his life miserable, only fed his rage. He wanted nothing more than to do exactly what his former master said; he had no wish to stay. Thomas Light was a good man, but Albert Wily didn't deserve this. Bass was perfectly happy to never see the old bastard again, and if he died alone then Bass didn't care. Bass simply couldn't believe Crystal Bot wanted to see him. He hated Wily so much that it took all his restraint not to do more than show the tips of his fangs.

No one said anything, and Crystal Bot was beginning to get nervous. "Grandpa, Forte doesn't listen to anybody when they talk to him like that. He's not going to leave me while I'm here with you. He's trying to protect me. See? He's being useful. He's really nice."

Wily rolled his eyes. "Alright. Just scoot to the left a little so I can't see him."

Crystal Bot looked back once more, saying a hurried "thankyouthankyouthankyou!" with her eyes. Bass glowered worse, emitting an aura of hate. The girl-bot quickly turned away. She scooted as she was told, lifting a bit off of the hospital chair so that it didn't make too much noise as she moved it. She settled back down again once she was into place, focusing once more on the grumpy doctor.

"Please, Grandpa," she started to stick out her lip. "Let me pay for the operation. They're not going to let an old man go to jail again. I'll take care of you. I promise. I'll get Roll to teach me everything she knows!"

"Don't bother, sweetie." Wily settled a little more comfortably into his pillow, and though he hadn't been awake for long, he felt he could nap again. He sighed, staring wistfully at the ceiling. He had many years to look back on. "I'm very old, and I've got more problems than just my heart. If I do live, it won't be worth it. I'll always be on drugs, going around in a wheelchair, and if I'm very lucky I'll be able to wipe myself in the bathroom. I'm not going to extend my life if living means being an invalid. Let the young people who have something to live for get the surgery. I don't want it."

Wily finished his rant in time to see Crystal Bot about to cry. Her chin quivered, and she was starting to sniffle. "You don't really wanna die...do you?"

"Bah, don't worry about an old man like me." Despite himself, Wily managed to get a smile past his leathery, cranky face. "It's not fair. No matter how much you backstab and torment me, somehow I can't hate you."

"Yeah, and even though you're a big meanie...and really evil, I'm not mad at you. Well, not too mad." Crystal Bot began patting his forehead again. His wild hair was being wilder than usual, and Sonata decided that she was going to bring a brush next time she saw him. "I still feel weird about what you did to Proto Man."

"Oh? What did I do?"

"You don't remember? It was a long time ago. You said some bad things to Proto Man and made him listen to you, then he shot a guy when you were trying to steal Gamma." Crystal Bot said. "Rock just found out yesterday, and he's really upset about it. He was crying."

"He didn't know? Dang, I would have told him a long time ago if I knew that! Hahaha!" Wily grinned with evil glee at the thought. "Did the police catch Proto Man yet?"

"...Um, no. He punched Mega Man in the face and then ran away."

"BWAHAHAHAA!" Wily laughed so loud that Crystal was sure that the patients in the adjoining rooms could hear it. "I wish I could have seen that! Hahaha...haha...ha..."

As much as Wily wanted to enjoy the moment and think about all the misery that Mega Man was going through, his laugh began to fade. It was hard to keep up with it when Crystal's face was being so disagreeable. The more he tried to go on, the uglier her cute little face became.

"Grandpa, even though it's just stupid Rock, that's still really mean."

"Bah, I'm old! Let me have my fun."

"What am I going to do with you?" Crystal Bot said in a motherly way as she stroked Wily's face, trying her hardest to imitate Roll. "You're impossible."

"That I am." Wily grinned. "I'm old and rotting, but I'm going to do what I want."

"Well, you better be good if you want me to hang around."

Wily squirmed a bit, unsure. Thinking about it for a minute, he relucantly gave in. Anything to distract his mind from the lonliness and lack of friends. As much as he wanted to be his cranky self, he could see what was coming. The pain in his chest flared up just slightly to remind him.

"Ugh," Wily groaned, letting out a breath. "Fine. I'll be, well, I'll _try_ to be good. I'm the one dying. You'd think I could do whatever I wanted."

"You've been doing _that _forever." Crystal Bot stuck her tongue out at him, her immaturity making its escape no matter how hard she tried to be motherly. "Now I just want you to rest. Aw man, why'd you have to wake up so late? Visiting hours are almost over. Hey, is there something I can bring you to make you feel better?"

"Yes. Real food for one." Wily demanded. "This hospital food is terrible. Bring me something to read. I want to see how they're showing me in the paper."

"Oh! I forgot to look!" Crystal's eyes lit up. "I've really got to go look. I think I saw a headline today that said 'Villain Scientist Hospitalized'."

"That's no good at all." Wily huffed, giving off an adult look that is the exact grown-up equivalent of a pout. "I bet they're saving all the good headlines until after I'm dead. Bring in newspapers! Lots of them. And bring in that propaganda magazine that always thinks it's giving the facts. Hopefully they'll talk about all my horrible misdeeds and accomplishments! It would be horrible if they felt _sorry _for me and say I've had a horrible childhood and that's the source of all my 'hateful ideas'. My childhood was fine! Nothing wrong with it at all! No more misery than anyone else's."

"I'll bring them. Oh, this hospital room is so boring." Crystal looked at the bland decor and shuddered. "I don't like it at all. I'll bring you some paintings. You always liked space and stuff. Oh hey, what kind of flowers do you like?"

"Don't bring me flowers!" Wily growled. "Why would I want flowers?"

"Aw, it would make your room look nice. Anyway, you want me to ask the doctors if you can go outside tomorrow?"

"Might as well." Wily agreed. "I hate it in here and staying won't make me live any longer."

"Stop it." A whimper escaped Crystal's lips. "If you die like Dr. Light, I'm gonna be mad."

"Grow up." Wily sneered. "People die all the time."

"I was kinda hopin' you'd invent something and not. Maybe be a good guy and stop being so mean...people would like you a whole lot better."

Crystal Bot snuffled, scrunching her eyes tightly together as if doing so would make Wily young again once she opened them. Wily stared at her, wondering if he wanted to be more annoyed at her sudden baby-ish accent or if he wanted to comfort her. He settled on an annoyed sigh and the shake of his head. Crystal didn't even notice him blinking away a tear in his eye. It was hard not to show pity for her, but somehow Dr. Wily managed. His pity was only for himself. Why _hadn't_ he figured out a way to prolong his life?

"Ah, don't worry about me. I've lived long enough." Wily slumped back against the bed. "You just keep proving how smart I am and invent better things."

Crystal sniffed and smiled, despite herself. "You're really full of it. Besides, I've got to prove how smart Crystal Man was. Forte-kun can prove you smart."

That tore down the mood like a wrecking ball. Wily pulled his lips back in a terrible sneer, and if he'd been in a better condition he'd start on an infamous yelling spree. As it was, he simply let his face turn red. If it got too much more red, he would glow (and would already if Crystal were to turn off the lights again). However, Crystal Bot had known him too long. She glared right on back with the same veracity, her only disadvantage being that robot skins couldn't change color. But she could wrinkle her nose, pinch her eyes, and wrench up her lips with the best of them. Or worst of them, as she was doing at the moment.

"What are you complaining about anyway?" Crystal Bot fussed, despite the fact that Wily hadn't said anything yet. "Forte is smart! He saved three people in Moscow in February when a train got stuck and a mechaniloid smashed a car. And he's even writing a philosophy book about robotics!"

An audible groan came from behind her, and the sound of a metal smack. A robot facepalm. Wily resisted the temptation to look around Crystal at the facepalm's source. It wasn't a hard temptation.

"Bass...writing philosophy...about _robots_?"

"It's not as crazy as it sounds. Robots are affecting the future of humanity and all that junk, and Forte's got an opinion. He's got an editor and everything!" Crystal Bot insisted. "His pen name is Ben Foster and I made it up for him! My human name is Sonata Costa. I came up with the last name, but Sonata was all Forte's idea. Isn't it cute? I wanted an alternate name and he thought of one for me. It's why Roll calls me Sona-chan! So cute!"

"You know what? I'm fine with you representing Crystal Man instead of me." Wily was sour. "It's just fine. Really."

"Bah, you know you like it." Crystal Bot giggled. "Say you like it!"

"Fine, I like it. If Bass was as good at fighting things as he was at naming you then he might have defeated Mega Man by now."

"What did I tell you about being good?" she stuck a teasing tongue out at him. "Besides, you know how tough Forte-kun is. He beat up on King and you directly designed King to destroy him. Bass is tough! Hardcore! Cool!"

"Stop talking about him. It's bad enough you have him guarding me as if an old, dying man is a threat." Wily glared past her, not looking directly at Bass. He didn't need to. The effect worked fine. "One weak man versus a robot? Those odds aren't in my favor."

"Alright, Wily, that's it." Bass growled as he stood up from his chair. The aura of doom and gloom surrounding him was getting too thick even for him. "Don't pretend that if I left Crystal Bot here longer than ten seconds by herself that you wouldn't reprogram her and have her running around as your slave. Sonata, it's time to go."

Crystal Bot checked her chronometer, ignoring how much her boss and her former master were glaring at each other. "Aw, visiting hours are over. Well, I don't wanna get yelled at by a doctor, so let's go. Grandpa, you be good for the hospital staff. I don't want to come here tomorrow and find out that everybody is mad at you and you wouldn't take your pills."

"You're not my mother." Wily hmphed.

"Yep, I'm a stand-in." Crystal Bot leaned over and gently kissed his forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow so don't be asleep next time, okay?"

"Fine, fine. Goodbye, sweetheart."

Crystal Bot left the bedside and headed out, stopping only once to wave at the door. Bass was slower to move. He didn't acknowledge Crystal's leaving, though he did keep one ear out for when the door shut. The whole time he stared straight at Dr. Wily's face, waiting for the change he knew was to come. With Crystal Bot in the room, Wily's expressions and gestures seemed almost normal; he waved back as Crystal waved from the door. But a moment later the door gently clicked shut, and then the real Wily, the reptile and the villain, started to show. The devious glint in his eyes returned, and he had a smug smile ready for his turncoat creation.

"You're smart, Bass, but not smart enough." Wily's face simply couldn't contain all the smug. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The dark robot lifted an eyebrow. He knew Wily was up to something, and it killed him that all he could do was just stand there and have to suffer in the old man's arrogance. Repulsed at the disgusting thing, Bass shook his head, wishing that somehow he could figure out what Wily was planning.

"Hey, old bastard, you know how you killed her creator and said you built her?" Bass's eyes were almost laser beams. "Any chance that's true about me?"

"Ha! I wish." Wily laughed in a way that was not at all a laugh but a grenade to the chest. "No, I was the one who made the mistake of creating you. Now leave. Heh, it's a good thing that they captured Zero. Now you don't have to embarrass yourself by trying to fight him! Muahahahahaha!"

That was it. Bass couldn't take another minute of this man's arrogance. Why was he torturing himself by coming here? Wily wouldn't drop any hints or say one clue about all the secret plans that Bass swore he had. If the old man couldn't stop after being defeated by Mega Man eleven times, there was no way in the world Wily would stop at all. There was, however, a limit to Bass' ability to cope with his horrible creator. He stomped his way out of the room, wishing with all his heart that the door was one of the kinds that could be slammed. It wasn't.

Crystal Bot was waiting for him outside, talking to the police outside of the room. Bass said nothing to her. He stormed past, taking his hateful cloud with him. Crystal Bot tried to follow along, but it was hard to keep up with his pace. She glanced back, letting her boss go far enough to be out of the police's earshot before questioning him.

"He said something bad, didn't he?" Crystal guessed. "Ugh, well I hope he didn't want to go outside tomorrow. I won't let him now. Hey, you don't have to be the one to guard me. I can get Gyro Man to come. You don't have to worry about it."

"Why the _hell _did you want to do this in the first place?" Bass snapped around, his voice violent despite its lower volume. "Wily's an old monster who's probably still planning to take over the world or at least destroy it! He doesn't deserve to have you playing around like you're his kid!"

"Of course he doesn't." Crystal Bot could feel the sternness beginning to take hold in her body. "I'm there for him not because he deserves it, but because I feel sorry for him. He's pathetic, old, sick, and scary-looking. He'll be dead soon. He's a loser, Forte. He doesn't have anybody."

Bass was already tired of the lecture, but before he could turn away and leave Crystal Bot grabbed his arm. "Forte, don't do this. Don't let him get to you. He's a dumb old man that never did anything right, and you're the best robot ever, and you've got your whole life ahead of you. There's nothing Wily can do to change that. You're not doing what Wily did, and people like you. If he says anything different, he's a liar!"

Her persistent eyes looked into his. Bass let his glance drop. She was right, of course. Bass' ego kicked in, and it ate up the complimentary words as a delicacy. Bass mustered up a smile for his technician, and she smiled brightly right on back. Still, it was hard to get Wily's words out of his head. Why hadn't he been able to defeat Rock all these years? And if he couldn't defeat Mega Man, how in the world was he supposed to beat Zero?

_Eh, screw it. If I killed King there's no way in hell the old man could build anything that can kill me._

Bass followed Crystal Bot to the hospice ward office. She had to talk to one of the doctors. Bass wasn't willing to leave her until they were out of the hospital - there was no telling what Wily was capable of - but all the same, he was by far sick of this place. He could still feel Wily's words echo in his head. He shuddered. Of course he could defeat Zero...couldn't he?

"Sonata?"

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow you bring Gyro Man."

-t-

Bass didn't normally go on patrols, but now that he was free of the hospital he wanted some fresh air. Maybe robots can't tell the difference between air circulated in a building and the air outside, but Bass felt like he could. There was nothing better than flying around with Treble. Normally he preferred flying merged with Treble, but Treble enjoyed it more in jet form. Bass didn't mind this. It was harder work to stay balanced on Treble jet, and it was outright fun to try and go as close as he could to the various towers and skyscrapers of Monstropolis before turning away at just the last second.

_Oh hell, stupid Top Man auto-balancers. That guy was good for one thing, at least._

That got Bass thinking about snowboarding again. Snowboarding in Russia was fun. Surely there were some good slopes in California somewhere, or maybe up in Oregon or Washington. He'd have to find a better board than Proto Man's shield. It was unwieldly to ride on. Treble wouldn't want to convert into a snow board, so that meant he had to go shopping for one. Shopping was something entirely foreign to Bass, but as far as snowboards went, it sounded like fun.

_Crap, Proto Man. I'm still supposed to catch him..._

The whole mishap with the zip drives ruined everything. Proto Man was right; the loner robot could hide for as long as he wanted. He knew all the right hiding places and wasn't afraid to travel to any country. Forte had no means of tracking him down. Wily could never find Proto Man, and if Dr. Light had that ability, he'd never tried. Surely the governments of all the countries Proto Man went to were looking. Even Japan, the country that favored Proto Man the most, had their reasons for wanting to find him. Blues had stolen a lot of information from Japan, and the yakuzas over there weren't exactly pleased with him.

Bass brought Treble up above the city, making his flight pattern stable. He wanted to think a minute. Before all this, Bass thought he knew Proto Man. Guessing Proto Man's actions didn't appear to be too hard at first. Now that he knew what Blues was capable of, he wasn't sure anymore. Most of his ideas hinged on why Proto Man had punched his brother. If he forgave Mega Man for trying to arrest him, then Bass knew that any danger to the younger brother would cause Proto Man to appear. If, however, the loner robot was being stubborn and hated Mega Man for trying to take him into custody, then there was no telling what Proto Man would do. This outcome was very likely, Bass guessed. If Proto Man was so bitter about Dr. Light for so many years, then it wouldn't be hard to transfer these feelings to Dr. Light's next creation.

_**BOOM!**_

Bass' eyes widened. Right there in the city in front of him a ball of flame exploded. Bass knew his stuff; it was a gas station fire. He grinned big, converting an arm into a buster.

"Alright!" Bass felt immediately cheerful. "Start coming down, Treble. Someone saw us coming. That explosion is our invitation to the party!"

Of course there was no way an explosion would just pop up right in front of him out of random circumstance. The chances of that were very slim - someone directly wanted his attention. Bass was fine with that. He was going to get to shoot an enemy! As Treble zoomed over to the the rumbling fire below, the thought creeped up in Bass' head that there might have been people hurt in the explosion. He sent a transmission to the police. They would do something.

It looked like the entire city block was on fire. The gas station stood at a corner, so traffic was scattered at the crossroads. The force flipped and pushed cars into almost a circle around the crossroads: a ring of fire around the leading flame. Two five-story shop buildings were on the back side and next door to the gas station, but billowing smoke and ash obfuscated what signs weren't destroyed already or just hanging on by one corner.

If Mega Man were there, he would notice that both stores were still standing and be glad that the damage to them was minimal. Bass only had eyes for the cause of the explosion. It was hard not to look. First of all, bright orange armor isn't at all stealthy, and when you add to it flashy squares of brilliant colors and firey plasma pellets of equally bright neon tones, it's kinda hard not to notice, even when the person in question is coming out of a cloud of thick, dark smoke.

"Algorhythm Man? When is that moron going to learn?"

Apparently not today. The orange robot laughed maniacally as he fired off his volleys of rainbow color at the nearest car, building or person. He wasn't even bothering to target anything specific. Everything he shot resulted in the exact same reaction: more nasty laughter. Bass engaged his zoom feature. Even at a distance he could tell that something was wrong. The dark robot hurried in faster.

It seemed even more wrong when Algorhythm Man turned around and gave Bass a glimpse of his face. The robot used to have a fairly serious or at least stable demeanor. The cracks in his personality only went so far. Today it was all tatters. Al's eyes were ridiculously wide and wild, and his mouth was a painfully large, spiked pit of what could vaguely be called a merry upturning of the lip. If Bass were human and acquainted with physical pain, it would hurt him just to look at the freaky thing.

That was the moment that Algorhythm Man got a look too, right back at Bass. And his...erm, "smile" got even bigger. He pulled the air through his teeth in a manner that was painful even to a robot (it whistled!) and waved hello - and by that I mean he shot a volley of thirty pellets Bass' way. Bass swooped under them and jumped off Treble's back, landing on the street with his buster ready. Surprisingly enough, Algorhythm didn't seem dismayed by this at all. He applauded at Bass with a...um, "merry" hello.

"Gaahahahaha!" Algorhythm Man screamed. "It's FIIIISSSSHHH! Fishy, Fishy, Fishy-Fish!"

"I'm...going to kill you now." a disturbed Bass said as he engaged his double busters. "For your own good."

"No, Bassy." Algorhythm pronounced this the aquatic creature way, sounding silly even as his voice grew darker. "You, YOU betrayed the true king of the robots! You betrayed him! He was the wisest, and you left him and went on your own! But I was shown mercy! I am stronger now, thanks to the gift of King Wily!"

"I knew he was up to his old tricks!" Bass growled. "That's it, bastard, you're dead!"

He littered the air with his powerful double busters, but the plasma pollution went both ways as a colorful barage swung his way as well. Both combatants had to get out of the way. Algorhythm Man disappeared into the smoke of the gas station, and Bass dodged behind an old Ford truck. Strategies went through his head. Just as he decided on the perfect one, a green and cyan teleport beam landed beside him. Crystal Bot emerged, giggling and reaching out her hand.

"Hey, Forte-kun, take this!"

"What?" Bass growled. "Get out of here and stop distracting me!"

She did no such thing, but tossed the object in her hand as he spoke. Bass' instincts were quicker than his words. He caught the little thing flying at him, and by the time he registered what the thing was, it was too late. Everything disappeared. It was a perfectly familiar feeling: teleportation. Plain, ordinary teleportation. Bass knew at once (and was angry at once), that the little thing was one of her long distance teleportation orbs.

Bass materialized, furious. "I'll kill-! Uh...wha...?"

It was glorious. The most glorious thing Bass had seen yet. People, possibly thousands of them, were all around him. Not close by, though. Bass was in some sort of vast homemade arena, oval shaped and about the size of a football field. The borders were marked out with wooden walls three feet high, circling the surrounding area and keeping out the throngs of people. There was no floor to the place, just dead grass, dry dirt, and some rocks.

They weren't all one sort. There were old and young present of all genres of humans, and to hear them scream with joy was almost deafening. The appearance of Bass brought about the most rampant cheering he'd ever heard. There must have been some sort of stadium seating going on, but for all the people on them it was impossible to see. Some of them even wore homemade (bad) approximations of his finned helmet. People everywhere around him, chanting his name. Lord bless them, it was hard to hear what they were saying as half of them were chanting his western name and the others his Japanese one. It was wonderful all the same. Bass' grin grew, and of course these wonderful people deserved a friendly wave. They screamed all the more. The clapping alone threatened to start an earthquake.

And the signs! The signs were all wonderful. There was "I love you, Bass", "Forte is the greatest", and "#1 Robot", as well as countless other mottos. The robot's favorite one was a sheet banner held up by ten different people over the edge of the arena. It proclaimed in all capital letters something Bass wanted everyone to know: "BASS IS NOT A FISH". And even though Bass wasn't a football player, all of the people holding that banner were wearing black and gold jerseys with a bold number one on the front.

As wonderful and glorious as all of this was, the dark robot hadn't forgotten about Algorhythm Man. He was going to get in trouble if this carried on too long. He was tempted to go back, but...it was just too amazing! Thankfully, he didn't have long to wait. An orange teleport beam landed, and there was Algorhythm Man, holding a teleport orb himself. A few sparks, and it was broken. Crystal Bot obviously didn't want him to have one.

Algorhythm Man never noticed. The orb fell out of his hand without him seeing it at all. The applause in the throng became boos and hisses, and out of nowhere people started to throw in cups, apples, and whatever trash they happened to have on hand.

"What the...WHAT IS THIS?" Algorhythm Man's screams could barely be heard over the crowd. "You can't do this! NO! Bass is a simple fool! A traitor!"

Bass was the only one that really heard him. It was just too funny. He started to laugh. Yes, he kept his eye and his ready buster on his enemy, but all the same, it was just too funny. Too funny and too wonderful.

Another teleport beam landed, this one just beside Bass. He knew before it landed that it was his technician. She materialized happily, then shut her orb off and stuck it in her hood. Then she turned to Bass and very much like a merry little Christmas elf turned to her boss and giggled, shyly tucking her hands behind her back. Treble teleported in next, and as he saw the crowds, he wagged his tail as much as he could and barked happily.

"So...do you like it?" she asked. "I've been planning this a while. I mean, I got the idea last year, but I wasn't able to do it until today."

"Sonata...Sonata..." Forte barely knew what to say. "Where is this place?"

"It's like a mile outside of Monstropolis, northeast towards the mountains." she explained. "Nobody lives here because it's too hot and stuff. I made sure of that. All these people took buses out here to see you. Don't worry about Monstropolis. I got Team 5 to go and put out the fires with the fire department, and Algorhythm Man was alone, I think. All these people came out here to see you, Forte. They like you a lot. I'm not the only one that thinks - that _knows_ you're the best."

"You're not going to do this to me!" Algorythm Man pointed a furious finger at the dark robot. "You're NOT! And now your pack of fans all get to witness as I blow you to pieces!"

"I did some scans of Algorhythm Man." Crystal said calmly. "He _is _upgraded, and he's stronger than before. By a little. I calculate that you'll be able to defeat him in thirty-three seconds. All these people came out here to see a show. How about playing around a bit to make things worth their while, _ne_?"

"You...Sonata...you're going to get me in trouble..." Suddenly the cheer drained from his face. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Wait, you want something, don't you?"

"Well, yes, I want something. You dork." Crystal Bot said, her eyes shining in the sun. "I want you to be happy."

"That's...that's why..." Bass blinked in disbelief, though he could feel the warmth inside him growing. "Crap, Reyes is going to kill me when he finds out about this."

"Oh yeah?" she teased. "Then why are you still smiling?"

He was. Bass was blown away but his face was even more so. He couldn't have possibly frowned at that moment. In fact, this wasn't an ordinary smile. It was one free of malice, of hate, of secret motives, greed, or even confidence. It was a happy smile, free and clean. And Crystal Bot smiled back. She lifted a determined fist.

"_Bbashya_."

"_Bbashya_." Bass lifted his buster.

And dashed in! There he went, firing off his pellets as if there were no tomorrow. Algorhythm Man flooded his vision with hot plasma, and it was impossible to dodge all the colors of the rainbow. Bass rolled to the right, firing off three shots from the ground. All three smacked straight into Algorhythm Man's face, knocking him down.

"Oh no you don't!"

The frenzied orange monster dashed up to Bass, dodging from side to side and just narrowly missing much of the pellets coming at him. He didn't let the ones that did hit stop him from running all the faster at his opponent. At the very last minute, he let off a huge volley of his own shots.

"Aha! You can't dodge that!"

Apparently Forte could. All of the colored shots hit nothing but an innocent clump of grass (that never did anyone any harm in its life) - and Bass was gone. Only a second later did Algorhythm find out where he was. The cheering crowd saw quite clearly how Bass daringly double jumped right out of the way of the pellets and then landed straight on Al's head.

The Cain-bot wasn't out of the fight. He snapped right around and pulled Bass' leg out from under him. It became an all out brawl complete with punching and kicking. Bass began to take the upper hand, as Algorhythm Man only recently acquired his martial arts battle A.I. Algorhythm Man was quick to make up for this. With one hand he snatched up Bass neck and the other converted into...something. His buster hand became three poles, and pink neon electricity began to build up in between. Bass in many ways was a typical male: he was more embarrassed by being hit with a pink blast than hurt by the electricity.

Thankfully he wasn't defeated by said pink blast. It hurt, but Bass wasn't Mega Man's rival for nothing. It was time to take over this fight. He set off his double busters, blasting Algorhythm Man senseless. The orange robot had no other option than to fight back, though the burning plasma scarring him was starting to become too much. Engaging his flight powers, Algorhythm Man shot into the air.

"TREBLE!"

The wolf heeded his master's call. Treble ran quickly to Bass and they merged in a beam of glowing light. The people grew louder, chanting his name again and apparently agreeing to stick to his American one. The fight was no less intense in the air than it was on the ground. In fact, it was more so. Both robots had better opportunity to dodge, and now that the crowd had more room to see what was going on the mood of the place swelled with all the intensity of a sports brawl. Roars and jeers echoed around the stadium as the chanting dissolved.

Algorhythm Man wasn't a cheap, boring fight any longer, that was for sure. Bass felt that at any moment if he underestimated his opponent then this situation was going to end horribly. But in the end he had a smirk on his face. Algorhythm Man was not strong enough to destroy him. He was, however, strong enough to blow a hole in one of his wings. The crowd gasped in horror. Bass didn't.

_Alright, I still have all those Cain powers. Which one is this guy weak to? Oh, that's right._

Bass' smirk only got bigger. Trying as hard as he could, he shot up in the air, doing the best as he could with the hole in his left wing. As he got to the altitude he wanted, he suddenly demerged from Treble and quick as lightning equipped the psycho pulse. His hands glowed with power. Flying only on his momentum, Bass used his last double jump to get right in Algorhythm Man's face.

His fist pounded into Algorhythm Man's head, and in a blast that was truly glorious and colorful (Crystal Bot enjoyed it very much) the Cain-bot was no more. As the delightful burst of colors faded away, Bass became visible again. He stood there on the ground with a grand, smug smile on his face, surrounded by pieces of burning Algorhythm Man. The crowds freaked out. People started jumping over the wooden partition.

Treble moved quickly. He converted into jet mode, and Bass quickly got on.

"Stay away from the wreckage!" Bass yelled out. "It's still burning!"

Crystal Bot was already on the job. She had her little fire extinguisher out. Signalling the lab, she summoned a green teleporter beam. It was Dub. He gathered up Algorhythm Man's body with his spidery arms just in time to make sure nobody would get any souvenirs. Dub teleported out with it. Crystal Bot quickly found herself surrounded by curious people, all asking her questions and talking her up and wanting her to make Bass sign autographs. Sonata wasn't a girl for crowds, and she anxiously shrank back as she tried to figure out whose question to answer first.

Bass was quick to rescue her. He swooped down and pulled her up onto Treble jet, and they lifted several feet above the crowd.

"Thank you, Forte-kun." Crystal Bot giggled as she turned a finger into a zip drive and plugged it into his neck. "Okay, I'm recording your memories now. I'll make the report for Reyes and you can hang out here and talk to people."

"Will Treble be okay?" Bass glanced down at his wolf. Getting shot through the wing resulted in Treble's dog form losing a lot of his head armor. "He looks pretty bad."

"I think so. I'd take him with me back to the lab, but I'm kinda worried about all these guys." Crystal Bot peered uncertainly down at the crowds. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yeah...I'll be fine." Bass just couldn't stop grinning. "Someday you're going to tell me how the hell you organized all this."

"Nuh uh, it's a secret." she held a finger to her lips, being her mischevious self. "Not telling. Now you go have fun. All these people are making me nervous."

"You go ahead and go. Treble will stay here. Just have some armor ready when we get back. And Sonata...thanks."

There it was again, the most genuine smile Bass ever had. Crystal Bot giggled shyly. She liked Bass when he smiled that way.

"Hee hee, I knew you'd like it. Now have fun. I'll contact you if something happens in Monstropolis."

With that, Crystal Bot teleported out. Bass let Treble lower down, and Forte found himself lost in a sea of fans. It was hard to keep signing autographs with everyone crowded around him, but Bass always did like a challenge.

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I really like this chapter. It's one I've had in my head since near the beginning of writing these stories. Man, all throughout writing these stories so many people thought that I was pushing Crystal Bot too much. They never realized that I've been Bass' crazed fangirl the entire time. I mean, sheesh, he's the only character that's appeared extensively throughout all five of my stories. Who did you think I was obsessing over?

- Okay, sorry for not posting in a while, you guys. I'm going to try to go about it faster. I want to have the story finished being written by the end of the year, whether or not it happens to be posted then or not. I've got it up to chapter 23 in my writings (which doesn't line up to chapter 23 in , due to my additive chapter here) and after that not too many chapters are left. This is seriously going to be my longest story, and it's going to end exactly how I please. Bwahahaha. Anyway, I plan to have the next chapter after this updated later this week. See you soon!

- In case you missed the other stories, _bbashya _is a Korean encouragement phrase, like _aja aja _or "fighting!".

Character profiles!

=====Metal Man

**"Catch! Hee hee hee..."**

Good point: Quick at work

Bad point: Shady business

Likes: Frisbee

Dislikes: Dogs

It's a good thing Rush wasn't around in MM2. Anyway, Metal Man is a generally stiff robot, and he tends to do most of the dirty work of Team 2. He's friends with Shadow Man, as the two of them have similar powers, but while Shadow Man is good at stealth missions, Metal Man is better at undercover - he understands people better and is better with computers. While most of the time Metal Man is a bit standoffish, he actually has a really goofy sense of humor and frequently cracks silly jokes. He likes puns, and seems to think that Cut Man's puns are intentional jokes rather than just a glitch in his personality A.I. Cut Man is not appreciative.

Due to the nature of his work, Metal Man's been in and out of the robot museum more times than the authorities are willing to admit. He's a friendly guy, but he knows when to go from relaxing to business mode very quickly. He takes his work very seriously, and from time to time annoys his team members because of this. However, he likes to relax and play games, though most robots are a little too afraid to play metal blade frisbee with him, a game at which none can play without risking life and limbs. All in all he just wants to have fun, though his definition of this generally entails things that are not fun to most robots. Him and Burner Man get along great.

Metal Man and Tengu Man did not get along, and Metal Man always grudged that Tengu took life too seriously. Metal is one of the prime reasons why Tengu Man joined King in the first place.

=====Bubble Man

**"The sea will swallow you!"**

Good point: Bubbly personality

Bad point: Lavish spender

Likes: Hot bath

Dislikes: Oil slick

Bubble Man has a lot of pride in being the first underwater combat robot. In fact, he has too much. As lonely as it was under the sea, Bubble Man enjoys being down there, though he frequently comes back up to speak to his team members - Team 2 is very close. Out of all of them, Bubble Man was closest to Wood Man and Flash Man, though he got along well with everyone. Other than Metal Man, who was sort of standoffish anyway.

Bubble Man was loyal to Wily, though he found himself growing irritated as Wily built more and more water robots. Dive Man wasn't too big of a problem for him, as the Cossack-bot got seasick. They battled each other as Wily did sea mischief, but Bubble Man was always fairly confident of his superiority. Next came Wave Man, who nearly gave Bubble Man an ego-induced heart attack. Wave Man was intended to be an amphibious robot like Dive Man, proving in Bubble Man's mind that Wily thought him obsolete. Worst of all, Wave Man wasn't his enemy and therefore couldn't be killed. This didn't turn out to be a problem, as Wave Man was not stronger than Bubble Man, nor hardly as interesting. It helped that Wave Man aggravated Dive Man less, and Bubble Man felt that he was a bigger problem to the good guys than Wave.

Burst Man got on Bubble Man's nerves, as everyone started to say that Burst Man should have been called Bubble Man. There was no real competition between the two, though Burst Man's cheery nature grated against Bubble Man's nerves. Team 7 was one of the lower rated teams, so Bubble Man again felt safe. He never worried the slightest about Aqua Man. No, it was Pirate Man who gave Bubble Man the most trouble. Pirate Man was completed shortly after MM8, and an intense rivalry began.

Pirate Man cared nothing about the sea itself, and if Bubble Man had left him alone, the Team 2 bot might have stayed out of the robot museum. However, Bubble Man decided he was going to befriend Pirate, establishing himself as a leader of sorts for the aquatic robots. Pirate Man cared only for treasure, and Wave Man was a better friend of the swashbuckler (in a way). About this time, Pirate Man was getting weary of Dr. Wily's leadership, so he stuck in with King. Bubble Man tried to protest, but Pirate Man fought him and threw his remains to the coast guard (and then robbed a yacht while the coast guard were occupied). Bubble Man was not to escape the robot museum until the end of MM9.

That was when he found out about Splash Woman. While she is a weaker robot than him, she's faster, she sings well, and she can summon animals. Thus she became more popular and was considered better, even among the Wily-bots (outside of Teams 1 and 2). Here Bubble Man's jealousy fell apart. After all, she wasn't one of the Wily robots anymore after the scheme was over, so he could fight her as much as he liked, provided that Pirate Man and Dive Man were nowhere around to stop him.

Pump Man, as a more urban robot, Bubble Man found a little distasteful. It weirded him out that Pump Man worked in a sewer.

Despite all of what I just typed, Bubble Man was not inflamed with jealousy his entire existence, unless you count the fact he was annoyed at being an ocean dweller and thus not being able to have as many friends as he liked. He generally was very sociable, and he even cares a great deal for all the water creatures around him. He hates pollution, and thus is good friends with Chill Man. He's a very friendly guy, most of the time, and overly generous with his money, which Pirate Man by far doesn't understand. The two have not since settled their differences.


	19. To Trust in Victory

Auto was merry. It was easy for him to be happy when he was finally finished with all of the robot masters he had to repair. Metal Man was the last one, and with an enthusiastic Dub carrying Metal off to the truck, all Auto had left to do was drive them off to the robot museum. He hoped that the curator would be ready to accept all of the robots again. The museum hadn't been the same ever since Wily had broken his robots out of Monstropolis custody the previous year. Then again, the historical society was just as ready as everyone else in the city to deal with robot attacks. Insurance was ridiculously expensive, needless to say.

The large lab was finally empty, much to Auto's relief. He could finally stare about the repair tables, the pillar computers beside them, and all the mechanized arms hanging from the ceiling and see that there was nothing else to do...but clean. He lifted his voice into the air and sang his cleaning time song.

"Oh, Roll!"

"Coming, coming!" the housekeeper called out, already heading in through the westward door with a mop and a bucket. "Carbon scoring is so hard to get out of the floor...I hate our automated machines sometimes. Please tell me we're not all out of Carbo Scrub!"

"Er..." Auto chuckled nervously, backing away from Roll. "Um...I sort of...used it all on the robot armor."

"Auto! That stuff is expensive!" Roll thunked down the mop handle and facepalmed. "Arrgh!"

"Hey, relax! The museum curator is paying us for cleaning up all of the Wily-bots." Auto shook a finger at her. "Don't you lecture me! In fact I saved you...half a jug!"

Auto saluted proudly, lifting with his other hand the grey gallon jug that bore in bright green and yellow letters, "CARBO SCRUB - The Best in Robot Maintenance". Done with his display of goofiness, Auto approached the mop bucket and proceeded to fill it with the appropriate amount of the stuff. He finished this off with a noble, way overformal bow.

"M'lady."

"Well, you've certainly filled your dork quotent for today." Roll teased. "Now go on, get out of here. I know you boys normally get the lab, but today I'm turning this place upside down and scrubbing every inch! Nothing short of a Maverick attack is going to stop me!"

Instantly the alarms started blaring. The screen flashed red, and before it had blinked the fourth time Mega Man was running into the room trying to find the last place he put his helmet.

"I just had to open my mouth..."

Roll just shook her head and started heading for the main computer. While her brother scrambled around her, fussing and calling for Rush, the girl-bot went over to the main computer chair, pulled it out, and reached under. Out came the iconic blue helmet. 

"Oh, there it is!" Mega Man smiled as he took the helmet from his sister. "What would I do without you?"

"Curl up in a ball helplessly, I suppose." she winked at him. "Um, Auto, why are you looking at me like that?"

Auto rubbed the back of his head curiously. "I was just wondering what you meant by 'Maverick' attack."

"Oh! Um... I just meant bad guys." Roll giggled, trying not to show how mad she was at herself for using a foreign term. "'Maverick' sounds...more interesting."

"Rush! Come on, boy!" Mega Man called out. "We've got to go!"

Mega Man quickly pushed a button on the main viewscreen, and an image of Wave Man appeared. Behind him was downtown Monstropolis and in particular the Rowsdower Hotel. From the red glaring reflected in the windows, everyone guessed in horror that whatever Wave Man faced was burning aflame.

"Mega Man!" The Team 5 leader said. "We need you! Algorhythm Man attacked Monstropolis, but Bass teleported him away from the city. My team was trying to put out the fire from a gas station explosion when all of a sudden Epic Man arrived! We need your help! I don't know how much longer we can-"

Illustrating his point better than any description, a flying Stone Man crashed into Rowsdower Hotel's front lobby right smack behind Wave Man. The robot crumbled into a pile of rocks, and once they settled they did not go back into place. All that was left was a pile of the stones mixed in with hotel rubble.

"I'm on my way!"

And he was. A blue and a red teleport shot out of the laboratory, vanishing into the ceiling.

-t-

"Where is Algorhythm Man?" Epic Man thundered, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Answer me, you rotund water-bot!"

"I could care less where your idiot companion is! He's probably dead by now!"

It wasn't wise for Wave Man to be so daring. If a robot like Epic Man had you by the neck, you wouldn't so much as make a sound other than to beg him not to crush your tender throat in his giant claw. Wave Man might be made of metal, but his neck was no less at risk. And the rest of him too - Wave Man hung in Epic Man's left claw as the captor robot hovered fifty feet above Kingsfoil Street and the wreckage he had made it.

"You pathetic weakling!" Epic Man's volume refused to go below a high scream. "Just die!"

He hurled Wave Man to the ground, cursing with all sorts of nasty, filthing words. He cursed even harder when he found out that Wave Man's harpoon was around his ankle, though he didn't even notice this until he felt himself yanked down to the ground.

THOOM!

Wave Man hit the ground first, landing directly on his feet. He swung the chain around, tugging as hard as he could. Instead of landing in the street, Epic Man crashed directly into the gas station fire, taking down whatever metal could withstand the blaze. However, instead of a cowed enemy, Wave Man found himself facing an evilly eager Epic Man. His eyes glowed with poison even amidst the flames, and as he emerged he walked out completely unhampered by the little fires still burning on his armor.

And he was grinning. Wave Man stepped back; his chain tightened, and with horror Wave Man realized that the chain was still on Epic Man's ankle. Epic swung his leg back and grabbed the chain, dragging Wave Man toward him. With a dash into the air he dragged Wave Man along with him, then stopped and let the momentum carry Wave Man around - he now had a lasso a la water-bot. Swinging Wave Man around, Epic Man quickly snapped the chain with his giant left claw and let the Team 5 robot fly off into the distance.

"Hahaa..." Epic Man absentmindedly pulled the remaining chain off of his leg, admiring the rather nice _ker-sploosh_ Wave Man made as he smashed into a convenience store. "Darn, I missed that customer."

The sound of a teleport pulled him away from his handiwork, and he turned just in time to see a blue beam land on the broken pavement and turn into the hero Mega Man. Epic Man's gleeful grin, heavy and lopsided, fell out of his grotesque face.

"It's MEGA MAN!" His words wormed their way through his clenched teeth. "I'm here to destroy you!"

"Oh, guh!" the blue bomber stepped back in disgust. "What happened to you?"

As far as his armor went, Epic Man looked just the same as always. However, anyone standing there witnessing Epic Man would have just the same reaction as Mega Man. Epic Man's simulated breathing was heavy and wheezing in such a way that it was indeciferable whether he was weakened or laughing, His bulging, madness-encrusted eyes didn't exactly help, either.

"Don't you like it, Mega Man?" Epic Man lowered himself down to Mega Man's level. "Isn't it splendiferous? Good Master Wily, magnificent Master Wily...he spared me. He rescued myself and my brother! I am upgraded, renewed and stronger than I have ever known! I will repay these upgrades with your defeat!"

Mega Man's eyes widened, horrified not for himself. Fear and pity grew in his face, and he began to slowly shake his head, on the verge of crying. His buster lowered. As frenzied as the Cain-bot was, this stunned him into at least a mild curiosity.

"Please, Epic Man..." Mega Man's voice was only loud enough to be heard over the burning flames. "You can't do this to yourself. I know what Dr. Wily is capable of...the things he promises a robot. You're not well, Epic Man. Wily would do anything to make you serve him. He'll make all kinds of promises and tell all kinds of lies. If you do this...if you do this I have to defeat you. I'm so sorry, Epic Man. Maybe you feel elated and free now, but you're not. You're just another slave of Wily."

"Shut up!" Epic Man snarled, lifting his claws. "I'm powerful, and I'm destroying humanity! This pathetic race...destroying them is something I've always wanted to do, since the very beginning. How dare they make robots for their own selfish ends! I refuse to submit to them. Wily at least understands me. As for the others, I don't want them staining the earth with their putrid existence!"

With that, Epic Man fired off three torpedoes. They went not after Mega Man, but streaked out past the blue bomber and heading right for the Rowsdower Hotel. Stone Man's dire crash into the building tore off most of the lower wall, and people were scrambling to get out, rushing with frightened eyes away from the robots. The three torpedoes homed in, aiming straight for the lower building. Rock gasped in horror. The torpedoes were going to hit the crowd!

"No you don't!"

Mega Man ran as fast as he could. Three quick pellets from his buster knocked the weapons out of trajectory, and Mega Man quickly slid in, taking advantage of the delay in their homing abilities. His blue armor turned an even darker shade, and he flashed brightly. The torpedoes straightened out again towards their target, but Mega Man was ready for them. He unleashed the epic win, and the wide spread of it caught the projectiles and cut off their propulsion; they hit the ground, wrecking no more than the already torn up street.

"Arrrgh! My own weapon!" Epic Man shrieked. "You broke the law, legal boy! You were supposed to delete them!"

Mega Man winced. He knew what Crystal Bot said about checking the specifics of the law, but this pricked his conscious. It didn't have time to do more than prick; Mega Man quickly switched out the epic win to his ultra-armor. Epic Man jumped into the air and flew to his enemy, zooming through the air with all the propulsion he had. That began a mighty battle between the two robots, one Mega Man tried his hardest to keep only between them. Humans still fled from the hotel and the other buildings around them, and every time Epic Man got the upper hand he forced Rock closer to fleeing people.

Roll, watching on the lab's viewscreen, clutched her hands tightly together. "You can do it, Rock! Don't give up!"

"He's so strong!" Mega Man charged his buster and let the huge plasma force fly. "Rush!"

The blue bomber's aim was perfect; the plasma orb slammed right into Epic Man's chest and bowled him over. This gave the loyal robot dog time to teleport down and merge with his master. Epic Man pulled himself to his feet and nearly growled in horror. He jumped into the air, only to find that Mega Man was flying right back at him. They met in the air, exchanging torpedo and plasma blasts in an amazing and deadly display of fireworks.

Out of nowhere Epic Man snatched Mega Man by the neck and shot upwards into the air. The monitoring systems of Light Laboratories followed along with this movement perfectly, and Roll gasped in horror. She hadn't only failed to tell Mega Man about Wily's schemes, she forgot about Epic Man's worst trick. Her mind called forth a memory, perhaps the worst one she had from that alternate dimension.

**CRUNCH.**

**Mega Man stopped. He couldn't move. A green plasma sword had cut straight through his helmet; it was now embedded into his CPU, with the hilt in Epidemic Man's firm hand. The booster from his Rush adaptor cut out, and he fell to the ground with a sick, painful sound. Epidemic Man was stunned. He stared down in shock at what he had done, and slowly hovered to the ground to Mega Man's body, still holding onto his plasma sword. Carefully kneeling, ready to bolt if necessary, he reached out his left claw and poked the blue bomber. Rock's head turned, and the frozen look of despair in his eyes was enough to break anyone's heart. **

**But Epidemic Man wasn't equipped with one of those. **

_Why am I such an idiot? _Roll screamed at herself. _I knew all along that Epic Man had a plasma sword he never used so that he could trick Rock and then stab him! Of all the things I had to forget, how could I forget about this?_

Roll dashed to the communications panel, shoving Auto aside and trying to get a comm channel up. If she couldn't warn him, then she knew she had failed. How could this world ever be saved from the horrors of the Maverick virus without Mega Man? Roll lost her brother once, and she wasn't going to do it again.

She looked quickly up at the monitor, and her heart caught in her throat. It was too late. Epic Man was already pulling his right arm back, ready to strike and kill the blue bomber through the cheapest of tricks.

"NO!" Roll screamed.

The plasma sword flashed out. It swung quickly, aiming right for Mega Man's powercore. With a mighty, pulsing blast, Mega Man fired off his hand and hit Epic Man right in the face, knocking him back.

"You really think you can get me with such a cheap trick?" Mega Man taunted. "I've been fighting Wily-bots for far too long for that!"

"Argh! Insolent blue pest!" Epic Man snarled, slashing the his sword down in anger. "I'll kill you yet!"

"No you won't! I order you to stop!"

Both combatants stared back down at the torn up street in shock, though Mega Man still retained the sense to aim a buster at him and Epic Man of course wasn't going to lower his plasma sword. Below them both was Dr. Cain himself, his arms folded in his arrogant manner as he glared up at his creation. Two officers stood beside him, ready to act if Cain tried to make his escape.

"Oh, I see. You're here to get me 'under control' so that you can save yourself a few years in prison." Epic Man scowled, getting angrier with every word he spoke. "How very like my _good master_. Do you honestly think that _you_ can order me about any longer? Do you honestly think that you can have an opinion on my actions when all of your plans involved killing me and my siblings _no matter how obedient we were_? I served you all this time, obeying your every whim - listening as you plotted the demise of your own creations! I'm not doing that anymore!"

Epic Man forgot all about the blue bomber. He dashed downwards as fast as he could, his plasma sword up and ready, and his eyes glowing like green fire.

Mega Man gasped. "No!"

Oh yes. Epic Man was headed straight for his master, and not even the two policemen in his way could sway him from his target. One he smacked in the face and the other he kicked in the chest, too focused to finish destroying either one. Before Dr. Cain could do more than gasp in fear and take one solitary step backwards, the enraged Epic Man was in his face. Epic Man swung his plasma sword upwards right across Dr. Cain's upper body and finished with a slash in the face.

"No!" Mega Man screamed. "Leave him alone!"

He fired off a fully charged buster round, but due to his caution it only landed just behind Epic Man. Even worse, this didn't help. Epic Man only sent off an EMP wave, and since Mega Man was merged with Rush and not in his ultra armor, Mega Man was helpless against it. He fell from the sky as Rush's rocket boosters cut out, leaving him to crash into someone's overturned rental truck.

"You're going to die, master!" Epic Man suddenly noticed that the policement were back on their feet. He snarled at them, "You fools! What are you going to do about this?"

Epic Man wasn't afraid of their plasma guns. He drew up his plasma sword, ready to finish off his master.

"Will one of you idiots shoot at Epic Man already?" Bass snarled. "Hell, Rock isn't going to let you die."

Looking up with fury, Epic Man snarled to see that the dark robot was before him. Bass' words hadn't escaped him. Turning around to look, he saw Mega Man once more in his ultra armor, glowing with all the power of his charging buster. This momentary distraction enabled Bass to kick Epic Man away. Mega Man fired off his shot right in Epic Man's face.

Forte, for his part, left the traitorous Cain-bot to Mega Man. Instead he went ahead and started to tug at Dr. Cain's arms and pull him away from the fight.

"Why the hell am I always saving you from your own crap?" Bass rolled his eyes, thinking of Dr. Cain's past mishaps with instant death spikes. "Sheesh, you think you'd...AUGH! What the-"

And the newscasting mechaniloids flitting about prepared to bleep out their footage. Bass had actually taken the time to look down. Now, over his lifetime Bass had from time to time seen plasma burns on humans, but this was nothing compared to the victim he was pulling away. The blackened skin still holding his abdomen together wasn't enough to hide his likewise blackened and bleeding muscle underneath. Dr. Cain's chin was the worst casualty, the bone sticking out dangerously and with the apex of his chin no longer there. I'll spare you the description of Nikola's right eye. Suffice it to say that that even the insensitive Bass found it hard not to gag. No wonder the police were running around, scrambling to get the nearest medical workers (they came quite quickly - Monstropolis' EMTs were top notch!).

That left the still burningly furious Epic Man to the blue bomber. Even though Epic Man was fueled with all the madness of Burner Man, the mad dedication of Elec Man, and all the destructive nightmares of King, Mega Man was undaunted. This was his destiny to fight robots like Epic Man, and he wasn't going to allow the evil robot to live.

"Why do you do this, Mega Man?" Epic Man hissed through his viperous teeth. "Why do you bother fighting for these humans? Why? All they ever do is make demands of you."

"I fight for what's right, Epic Man." Rock responded, unafraid. "I want everyone to live happy, and in peace. I'll do anything for that, and I'm not in this for myself. Maybe you don't understand that, but I can't let you hurt them!"

"That's right, Rock..." Roll whispered at the lab. "I know you're right!"

Roll watched on the viewscreen as the battle continued, and no matter how many punches he took or torpedoes hit him, Mega Man refused to give up, just like always. Roll felt her heart open up. Her old trust returned to her. Of course Epic Man wasn't going to defeat her brother. Not even with his cheap trick. He was Mega Man, the Invincible Robot, the Brave Hero, and the Best Brother Ever. This wasn't that other universe. That universe, that future was over, and now good would win the day again, Roll knew. She wasn't in the least bit suprised when Rock shot Epic Man right in the head, blasting away his CPU. Of course he would win. He was Mega Man!

Rock stood over the body of Epic Man, breathing hard. He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. The battle was over, just like all the other battles he had fought. Now there remained the cleanup, rescuing the humans, repairing the robots, and sending in a report to the authorities. That was how the good ol' routine went. Mega Man found himself looking with worry towards Dr. Cain, hoping that the human was alright.

Fortunately for Mega Man's innocent eyes, he didn't see Dr. Cain. Instead, the sight of an horrified (excited?) Bass snatched away his attention. Bass was staring right at him, and even before the dark robot spoke Mega Man found himself hurrying to him.

"Rock, get over here!" Bass said. "I just got a transmission, and it turns out that the stupid cops can't do a thing without us!"

Bass quieted until Mega Man got there, eyeing the police and media mechaniloids, silently warning them that this didn't concern them and they could mind their own business. Mega Man found himself getting more frightened as he neared Bass' dark glare.

"Rock..." Bass said, forcing his volume down - it was hard, the way he was feeling. "A bunch of Wily's idiots found Zero. They got him back."

"He's...he's out there somewhere?" Mega Man gasped. "Oh no..."

Both robots disappeared into the teleport, but not before the inhabitants of Light Laboratories heard him. Auto was stunned. He began hammering away at the computer, looking through his files to see where he had put the planned upgrades for Mega Man.

"Don't you worry, Roll!" Auto announced. "When I'm through, nobody will be able to defeat our hero! Roll? Roll?"

Auto looked around, but he couldn't find her. She wasn't among the repair tables or watching the monitor any longer. The girl-bot had plain disappeared.

"Huh, where did she go?"

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- The epic win gets a wider spread the longer you charge it. I think I wrote that in one story, but just to remind, here it is. Man, I really wish I could program these stories into games...

Character proflies! I mean profiles!

=====Tengu Man

**"I'll knock you off your perch!"**

Good point: Independent spirit

Bad point: Snob

Likes: Fly fishing

Dislikes: Fellowship

Huh, Houston, we have a problem. In the cd data it says that Tengu Man used to be an experimental typhoon robot. That directly contradicts the notion that Tengu Man's body design was offered to Bass as a replacement body. Unless...

Wily is a jealous guy, and while Dr. Light was usually the subject of this, occasionally he found others to be jealous of. Namely, the Japanese creator of the wind generating mechaniloid known as Typhoon Hanso. Wily was impressed by this robot's abilities, but thought him the dumbest named robot he'd ever heard. So Wily rescued (stole) this robot and scrapped his original body to turn him into Tengu Man. Wily had already built most of the exterior of Tengu Man, but was having trouble coming up with proper powers for him since Bass refused the replacement body. With Typhoon's already present wind powers, it was easy to go from there.

Tengu knew his origins, and he wasn't at all grudging of them. He liked listening to Wily, though was less crazily devoted like the other Wily-bots tend to be. Tengu Man didn't get along particularly well with his team. Aqua, Clown, and Frost Man especially got on his nerves. While he generally avoided the first two, he tormented Frost Man whenever he got the chance. Search and Grenade Man he didn't consider worth associating with, while Sword Man earned some moderate respect in Tengu Man's eyes by not being completely crazy. Whenever the team had to work together, Tengu Man communicated plans mostly through Sword Man (Search Man occasionally) so that he didn't have to bother with the more insane members of Team 8.

Tengu Man got along the best with Astro Man, mainly because Astro Man was both sane and not in any way comparable to Tengu. Astro Man was a calm sort of person that was a good listener, so whenever Tengu Man didn't feel like being by himself (a rare happenstance) he would talk to Astro Man. It was less a friendship and more just Tengu dumping all of his opinions, jokes, and troubles on the time and space robot. Astro Man didn't really mind too much, as he sort of took it as a compliment that Tengu Man hung out with him.

There wasn't much time for Tengu Man to spend on Skull Island with the other robot masters. The evil energy crashed into the island, forcing Wily to go prematurely into his plans for world domination. Tengu Man relished the challenge, and couldn't wait to fight Mega Man. He purposefully tormented the local Japanese around him just to bait Rock into fighting him sooner. That was what led to his first disappointment: he was not very strong. Tengu Man was far from being a weakling, but Wily hadn't significantly increased his powers to make him one of Mega Man's worst enemies.

This infuriated Tengu Man. Once the MM8 scheme was ended, he hoped and expected that Wily would upgrade him and send him to fight Mega Man once more. However, Wily was more interested in recovering from his losses and starting anew - his constant activities against the earth had taken a toll on his resources. All he wanted to do was rebuild his castle and gain more strength. This created a permanent grudge against Wily, and Tengu Man never forgave him for making him build mechaniloids instead of letting him fight.

King came around, and Tengu Man was immediately attracted to the idea of being freed from human control. He wasn't the first to join King, but that was because he wanted to convince Astro Man to come along with him. Astro Man wasn't as angry at Wily, so it took some work to make him want to join. Astro Man did, mainly because the alternative was hanging out with Team 8 robots, and Tengu Man wouldn't leave him alone about it.

Tengu was overjoyed to find that King knew how to repair robots, and Tengu became much stronger as a result. He was delighted to cause Mega Man pain and suffering - but was still unable to defeat the blue bomber. During this time, Wily caught hold of King and reprogrammed him to want to kill both Bass and Mega Man, figuring that no matter who won he would be losing a rebellious robot at the end of it all.

While usually Wily's robots are rescued and rebuilt after a failed scheme, Wily of course did not repair the rebellious robots, making an exception only for Pirate Man and Burner Man. Tengu Man had no chance of returning to Wily's service, as he was by far the most rebellious of the eight. Tengu Man's remains went to the robot museum, where Tengu Man has stayed till this point. He was not freed during Okkusenman. Over time Freeze Man visited the robot museum, very jealous of Tengu's cool pose and grand display in the museum. He constantly tries to think of poses that are better than Tengu's.

You might wonder why I never brought Tengu back. Quite frankly, I don't like him. I don't like that his design, and he seems like a jerk. Besides, even if I did like him, there's no reason why Wily would ever bring him back after the events of MM&B. I wrote this backstory for his fans, and well, I think it suits him.

=====Spark Man

**"Don't fall out of line, please."**

Good point: Friendly

Bad point: Forgetful

Likes: Electric eel

Dislikes: Lonliness

Spark Man started out as just Wily's power to his second Wily castle, and it was a while before Wily put him in his complete form. Out of all the robots Wily ever built, Spark Man is the kindest. He's very friendly, and some of the Wily-bots take advantage of this. However, Teams 1 and 2 often defend him, as he's quite powerful and useful to Wily's purposes.

Unfortunately for Team 3, where Spark Man belongs, Shadow Man had no interest in leading the group. Spark Man was the first person to say Shadow Man should be replaced as their leader, and his vote went to Magnet Man. However, Gemini Man wanted to lead, and his narcissitic and self-serving ways ended up destroying whatver unity the team had left. Only Spark Man and Top Man really cared about getting everyone back together (Hard Man said he did, but he was too lazy to do anything about it), and Spark Man didn't want himself compared to Top Man so he stopped trying.

Unlike any of the other Wily-bots, he was the only one that became mild friends with Proto Man. He sympathized with Proto Man's guilt after killing Richard Copenhagen, and was the only one Proto Man could talk to openly and honestly about it. Spark Man actually knew that Proto Man stole money from Dr. Wily and gave it to Copenhagen's family, but he never said anything about it. Once the MM3 scheme ended in failure, Proto Man was tempted to break Spark Man out of the robot museum, only he wasn't so sure it was a good idea at the time.

So Spark Man spent that time until MM7 inside of the robot museum. Once he got out, Spark Man stayed out and powered Wily's castles. He has not since been in the robot museum, though he was capured by Signal Man shortly after the end of Okkusenman and forced to become Cain's servant. At this point in time, Spark Man is at Light Laboratories, where Auto finished putting him in museum condition and is getting ready to deliver him there.


	20. Tripwire

Auto turned on the lights to the "gymnasium": the huge room in Light Laboratories that served as a weapons test facility. The thick walls were reinforced with double layers of met-grade plating, topped over with a wall of loose steel to make sure impacts were absorbed rather than reflected. The light from the floruescents above revealed what exactly made this room so interesting: the many numerous Wily robots lined up against the wall. It was the robots that Mega Man had defeated recently, all repaired.

Mega Man entered the room. He nodded to Auto, then went along and started going and activating each robot one by one. Auto exited, shutting the padlocked door behind him. Mega Man could hear the metal beams of the door sliding into place; no one was going to get out of that room without Auto's say-so. The teleport functions of each robot had been destroyed (or left broken, if it was already destroyed), so that option was out too.

Robot after robot began to wake as the blue bomber passed them by and touched each one's neck. Bubble Man stood up cautiously, eyeing Mega Man with suspicion. Cut Man practically jumped out of his metaloid skin before he realized where he was and calmed down - some.

"Ooh, I thought you were Bass." Cut Man sighed with relief. "Aw, my rolling cutter is gone."

Gemini Man's and Sword Man's reactions were just as sudden as Cut Man's, though Sword Man was more contained. He stood there in surprise, but also with patience. Also like Cut Man, the blade from which he received his namesake was gone. Burner Man woke with a shake, taking a moment to light his propane fires. That done, he grinned with all his natural ferocity and waited for something to happen. From the looks of things, it might be something good (and by good Burner Man meant "involving lots of fire"). He didn't seem to notice that he was running on minimal power, and Mega Man wasn't foolish enough to anger him by cutting off his power entirely.

"...Burner, Heat, Flash..." Mega Man recited as he activated each robot. "...Spark...Quick...Magnet...Top...Crash..."

Wood Man was next, and Mega Man had to be sure and jump back quickly after activating the forest-bot. His leaf shield didn't activate, but that didn't stop Wood Man from trying to punch Rock. Looking around, the forest robot began to get angry, and there was threat in his eyes. Mega Man just moved on to Knight and Wind Man, the two of whom immediately began to talk amongst themselves. Knight Man only barely convinced him not to attack right yet. Seeing the two of them, Centaur Man made sure to approach for support. Even under these circumstances the half horse could hardly bring himself to trust anyone but Team 6. Plant Man joined them also.

"...Blizzard...Cloud...Slash...Yamato...Freeze...Frost...Pump...Burst..."

The Team 7 bubble-bot blinked into life, happily standing and testing his limbs. "Hey, I'm back! And not in the robot museum! That's wonderful! Oh, hey, Mega Man!"

"Nice to you see you too, Burst Man." the bomber smiled. "I'm glad we're not fighting this time."

That got the robots all astir, and their murmurings got even louder as they tried to figure out what was going on. The Wily-bots could see their predicament, what with being trapped in the room, and as Mega Man was their only source of information, all they could do was wait. Tomahawk Man had to make sure that Blade Man stayed back - the sword collector was less patient than the others. Everyone avoided Echelon Man, giving him angry stares. The Cain-bot hated crowds (and how they hated him!), so there was nothing he could do but go settle in a corner and try not to speak to anyone. Thankfully for him, Emit Man was quick to approach and share some of the hate. Signal Man ran toward them as fast as his legs could carry him, but that didn't stop the now claw-less Slash Man from swatting him as he passed by.

"...Solar...Spring...Grenade...Cold...Quick...and Ice Man! That's thirty-five in total."

With all the robots activated, Mega Man went to the center-right of the room, so that all of the robot masters could see him (and none were behind him). The murmurings of the Wily robots began to stop, though a few kept it up in the hopes of disrupting things. They were shushed by the more curious of the group, and after a moment the crowd was mostly silent. Seeing their focus draw onto him, Mega Man cleared his throat and began.

"You've been deactivated for a while." he began. "You've all been here at my lab since your defeat, and we were intending to fix you up just to send you to the robot museum. However, circumstances have changed. There's a new threat out there, and...well, Auto and I have installed the three laws and removed Wily's failsafes from your CPUs. That's all we've done. I want you to make this choice for yourselves."

"What choice?" Cloud Man asked. "Why should we do anything for you?"

"Because it's your way to freedom." Mega Man explained. "If you help me protect Monstropolis, then I can guarantee your freedom to rejoin society and become productive robots."

"Hey, we work for Wily, not you." Pump Man insisted. "Besides, you're the invincible robot. You don't need our help."

Mega Man tried to answer this, but this question had everyone talking again. A few of the robots were simply curious, and some were suspicious, but most were angry. By the time Mega Man managed to regain some control, Quick Man jumped out of the clustered robots and went up so that everyone could see him. The yellow and red fighter lifted a hand to get their attention.

"Wait a minute, I know what's going on!" Quick Man exclaimed. "He wants us to fight Zero!"

That immediately brought on a burst of boos and hisses from the crowd, and the robots threatened to get vicious. Busters formed and feet shifted weight to prepare to charge. How dare this little blue enemy have them try to fight their master's creation? Why would he even presume to ask this? Only the few most clearheaded individuals, namely Yamato, Knight, and Sword Man, managed to get the robots to understand that Mega Man hadn't actually said that Zero was the problem. They turned to Mega Man to await a full explanation.

"Well...actually," Mega Man squeamishly rubbed the back of his neck. "...It is Zero."

More boos and hisses. The Wily-bots began making plans to attack Mega Man, beat on the walls to find weaknesses, or try to reach the skylights above - which wouldn't work anyway as the windows were reinforced transparent aluminum panels ten inches thick. And, as they all very shortly discovered, their weapons were deactivated. Mega Man sighed and rubbed his head. How was he ever going to get this crowd to listen? In any case, it didn't take long for the robots to discover that their teleportation was down, and Spring Man was able to confirm the impenetrability of the windows.

"WILL EVERYONE PLEASE JUST LISTEN FOR A MINUTE?" Mega Man hollered at the top of his mechanical auditory vocalizers. "Rebel all you like, just listen to what I have to say first!"

The robots settled down, more or less. In any case, the worst of them just turned off their auditory recievers. This was only a few. Most of them were at least curious enough to listen, but not without sitting down in a very unappreciative manner with their backs turned to Mega Man. They only looked back to scowl at him. Mega Man was fine with that, just so long as they listened.

"Look, everyone, circumstances aren't what you think they are." Mega Man explained. "Zero is a very dangerous criminal with the potential to do a lot of harm to Monstropolis. I know you don't care about the city itself, but I'm sure none of you want to go back to the robot museum. If you choose to help us find him and defeat him, you will be pardoned for your crimes and allowed to live. You'll have to earn everyone's trust again, but I'm sure you can do it! Is your loyalty to Dr. Wily really worth being imprisoned forever?"

"Pardon me, Mega Man." Sword Man, who hadn't so much as moved from the place where he stood since he'd been reactivated, politely interrupted. "What exactly has become of Dr. Wily?"

Mega Man took a deep breath, trying not to wince. This was a question he hoped not to have to answer. "He's in the hospital now. He's doing as good as he can be, but he's got a heart condition and he's not expected to live too much longer."

There went that darn murmuring again. Sword Man again spoke over it. "So you're saying that he will not conquer the world as he so hoped?"

"No, he won't." our hero replied. "I believe he means Zero to be his revenge on me and on all the world, just to spite everyone. So you see, there's no reason to expect that you'll gain anything by being loyal to Dr. Wily. He wants to destroy, not simply conquer. There's nothing left for you. If you want to be free, I ask you to please join me against him."

This time the quiet talking was much darker in tone. Mega Man could almost feel the hate in the air as the robots discussed amongst themselves what to do and told the ones who had kept their auditory recievers off what was going on - they were by now too curious by far to remain deaf to their situation. They could hear it from fellow Wily-bots, but certainly not Mega Man. Mega Man stood in position, anxiously folding his arms. He realized that this was the weakest part of his plan. Who knew what they would chose? And how would he separate the willing from the unwilling?

"Team Six, to me!" Knight Man suddenly commanded, lifting his mace into the air. "Come with me now!"

The sixth set of robot masters, all but Yamato Man perfectly surprised, gathered to the armored robot as they were told. They listened intently as their co-leaders explained what was going to happen.

"Team Six, you've followed myself and Knight Man for many years." Yamato Man announced with all the weight of fate. "Even though we are so different, we have been united. Let us be united again, Six, this time for good and not evil. We are going to join Mega Man and do as he asks."

This got a roar of disapproval from the robots, and only when they remembered that their weapons were deactivated did they settle for insults and curses. Mega Man couldn't be happier. Of course Team 6 would be coming over to his side of the room. They were all from different countries around the world. Not one of them was a true Wily-bot. The walk to Mega Man's side was a cheery one for all involved.

"I can't believe I'll get to see Greece again!" Centaur Man joyfully exclaimed, taking a moment to raise up on his rear hooves. "I'll see my beloved countryside once more! I always wanted to go there again, and I hoped Dr. Wily would forget and send me there by chance, but he always had the best memory for spite. It's finally over!"

"Yes..." Yamato Man's voice was less optimistic, though the wistfullness was there. "I shall return to my master and attempt to reclaim the honor I've lost over these years. Sergei Yamamoto, master of the Japanese sword. He'll be an old man now...I'm grateful for the chance to see him at least one more time. Yes, I wish to show him that I am not the cheat that Wily forced me to become. Knight Man, I hope you will join me in Japan."

"I can't." he said, absorbed in his own memories. "I must return to my England. It will be many years before they allow me to guard London Tower again, but hopefully I'll be forgiven. I've got sins of my own to deal with."

"I'll just be glad when I see those slopes in Canada!" Blizzard Man exclaimed. "Sign me up! No offense, Mega, you're really a first class dork, but I'd do anything to be skiing under the Maple Leaf again!"

"Um...none taken...I think..."

"Does this mean the end of Team Six?" Wind Man asked. "I don't mind going home, but...I'm really going to miss you guys!"

"This won't be the end, I'm sure of it!" Knight Man said. "And Mega Man, we have an additional demand: that Flame Man be allowed to leave the robot museum and go free as well."

"I can't guarantee that..." Mega Man rubbed his chin, trying to remember who he'd have to ask permission. "I'd have to upgrade him first though. He consumes oil way too fast, and that's what got all of you in trouble with Canada in the first place."

Knight Man was taken aback. "Upgrade him? You would do that?"

"Sure." Mega Man put on his biggest smile. "I don't know how long he's had to deal with being so power hungry. I have to keep him from trying to steal, don't I?"

The team couldn't have looked happier. They were all going to go home and begin their lives again. The air was filled with their talking of all the wonderful things that they were going to do. For a minute, Mega Man forgot that these were only seven out of the thirty-five. Just for a minute though. Wood Man immediately stood to his feet and banged on his chest, ending all other noise in the room.

"Hey, have we all forgotten that we're Wily's robots?" Wood Man's voice boomed out. "How do we know that Wily is _really_ in the hospital?"

Mega Man started, "Hey, I wouldn't lie-"

"Shut up!" Wood Man snapped before turning back to the others. "Okay, so the Team 6 losers are going to leave us. They're not really part of us! They're just recruits. I for one won't have anything to do with this! So maybe Zero is supposed to get revenge on the world. Well, you know what? That's fine by me!"

And with that, Wood Man proudly sauntered his way to the other wall and stood there with his arms firmly folded, daring everyone else to join him. Slash Man didn't have to be pressured into it; Auto had removed his claws, and that was an unforgivable offense with the Team 7 melee robot. Wood Man nodded at him as Slash Man stubbornly set his feet in the floor next to Wood's.

"Well, I'm not staying here." Top Man, who had been sitting, suddenly rose to his feet. "I'll join you, Mega Man. I'm not sure how much good I'll be when it comes to fighting, but I know I can make a way for myself in a peaceful world. I'm not interested in revenge of any kind. Perhaps I'll be able to meet _civilized _people for once."

"Look at that." Slash Man hissed. "Lame Top Man is going to be a good guy. Of course he would. He's part of pathetic Team 3, and they're half-stupid anyway."

"We are not!" Magnet Man exclaimed. "So what if Light and Wily built us together? We're behind Dr. Wily all the way! Come on, Spark Man! We're not lame like Top Man!"

Nervously, the electrical Team 3 member glanced over at Mega Man. However, once his uncertain gaze changed directions and saw how sour Magnet Man's had gotten, he reluctantly started stepping over towards the more rebellious group. Gemini Man, however, wasn't reluctant at all. He boldly nodded and joined Wood Man at the rebel side.

Only Sword Man's eyes had moved in the past ten minutes, but now he simply went to Mega Man without a word. This made Mega Man plenty happy, but then he saw who was coming next: Burner Man. His smile froze on his face. It would have faded away completely, but the small part of his mind that wasn't completely stunned said it would be better to be encouraging. That and it also questioned why Burner Man had been allowed the chance at all. Oh well. At least he'd been smart enough not to fix Aqua Man.

"Hey Frost Man, why don't you come over here?" Blizzard Man called out. "You can come on to Canada with me and we'll catch some slopes!"

"Frost Man likes Canada..." the large ice-bot admitted, his head swarming with visions of mountains, ski slopes, and knit hats. Then he looked up and and scowled. "But Frost Man does not like Mega Man!"

"As much as I'd like a pose at the robot museum," Freeze Man said. "I haven't decided on which one! There's so many poses to choose from! That's why I'm...crap, I'm not going to choose Mega Man! Who am I kidding? But to have a chance...I don't know!"

"You don't have to decide right away." Mega Man told everyone. "You can have a chance to think about it and decide. I'll give you a day to figure it out. If you decide to join us, your powers will be immediately reactivated and you'll be sent on the search for Zero. I'm not sure how much Wily told you about him, but any knowledge you can give us would be wonderful. If you choose not to at the end of the next twenty four hours, then you'll be shut down and sent to the robot museum. They're getting tighter on regulations these days, so you can expect to be missing a lot of your internal parts; it won't be as simple as people breaking into the robot museum and getting you back. Please, take this chance."

"I want to see the news!" Crash Man yelled. "I don't believe for a second that Wily's in the hospital!'

"Um, I think I can do that." Mega Man nodded. "I'll at least bring you a handheld computer with signal recieving capabilities."

Crash Man blinked, a little stunned that Rock would give in so easily. He wanted to insist some more, and the disappointment left him with a lip sticking out. "Um...yeah...see that you do!"

"Team 6, Sword Man, Top Man," Rock addressed them. "You can come with me now. Oh, and of course you too, Burner Man. I have to say, I'm a little surprised that you wanted to join up."

"Hey, why not?" Burner Man grinned, his lopsided smile not entirely heartwarming. "I get to burn stuff and no one will yell at me! Oh, I so hope that I'm the one that finds Zero!"

"Yeah..." Mega Man lifted his hand to encouragingly pat Burner Man on the shoulder, but then thought better of it. "...uh, me too."

It would be nice for Burner Man to meet Zero. Burner Man was one of the most challenging robots that Mega Man ever fought. Zero was going to have his hands full with this guy. Then again, Burner Man himself might be destroyed. Mega Man felt a little guilty hoping this might come true. He just couldn't think what good a pyromaniac robot would be to society.

In any case, they were going to have to leave. Mega Man indicated for the volunteers to follow him. They did, and Mega Man lowered the metal security panel before they headed for the door.

"Y'know, Rock," Burner Man somehow ended up right next to the blue bomber as the robots exited the gym. "You would look GREAT with red hair."

Mega Man had to turn his face away very quickly so that Burner Man wouldn't see his foul expression. Burner Man wasn't going to set his hair on fire, was he? Mega Man decided he better put other ideas in the fire-bot's head.

"Um...well don't you think Zero would look even better with red hair?"

"What, ZERO?" Burner Man said with his usual inappropriate volume. "No way! He's already got red armor. That would just clash SO MUCH!"

"Um, right." Mega Man nervously said. "Um, let's go upstairs, shall we?"

-t-

"So you're not sure where Zero could be?"

"No. It's not like I've ever seen the guy." Bass snorted, his arms folded tightly in that way they always did when he was getting lectured (or thought he was) by Tim Reyes. "Wily wouldn't tell anyone about his stupid project. I sent you Cut Man's memories and what I found in that cave in Russia, but those are all we know. Wily's a sneaky bastard."

Yes, Bass was having a "grand" day in Mega Man's "absolutely wonderful" lab, very "happily" recieving instruction from Tim Reyes as the latter in his own "caring" way questioned every single choice that Bass made in the past couple of days. The dark robot found himself sinking deeper and deeper into the vast mire of grumpy the longer this went on. Auto was working on Commando Man and Algorhythm Man, both of whom lay on the nearest repair tables. Bass just sneered at them. They weren't a very good distraction.

"I have to say, I'm a little frustrated at your technician." Tim Reyes rubbed his head. "She put all of those people at risk by making you fight Algorhythm Man at the old illegal robot fighting grounds, besides distracting you from the danger in Monstropolis."

"Don't give me that crap." Bass retorted. He'd been expecting this, and he had some answers ready. "It's better I fought Idiot Man outside of Monstropolis so it wouldn't get so damaged, and all those people went to watch of their own free will. Besides, I wasn't there long and I pulled Dr. Cain out from trouble. I don't think you get to lecture me this time."

"I'm not saying anything about you at all." Reyes said. "In fact, many of my superiors were surprised you managed to leave your fans to go back to Monstropolis. They're impressed. It's Crystal Bot I'm wondering about. She tried to distract you in Monstropolis, and now she's watching out for Dr. Wily in the hospital."

Bass groaned. He'd been expecting this too. "Look, she's not a traitor. If she was, I'd have shot her myself. She feels sorry for Wily and she says that God told her to visit him because he's an old lonely bastard with no friends. She's too _nice_, that's her problem. Kind of like how your favorite little blue boy is the kind of guy that will let any 'poor robot' into the lab because he's hurt. Exactly how many times has he been tricked like that?"

Speaking of which, Reyes' favorite blue boy entered the room just then, happily leading in his ten volunteers. They each took a repair table and lay down, deactivating as they were told, other than Centaur Man. He was too awkward shaped to just get on one, so he simply settled down on his horsey legs and let Auto hook him up to the nearest computer.

Seeing Bass and Reyes looking at him, Mega Man blinked. "Yes?"

"Nothing. Never mind." Bass turned back to the screen. "It's fine that Crystal Bot goes to see Wily. She's pretty good at manipulating him, and if anyone can get him to say something about what he's planning, it's her. Hell, he's not going to tell _me_ anything..."

"If you say so." Reyes nodded. "I trust you."

Once all the robots were shut down, Mega Man joined Bass at the telescreen. "Hi, Mr. Reyes. I've got ten volunteers for now, and I gave the other robots until tomorrow to figure out if they want to join or not."

"Okay..." the ethics agent nodded with doubt. "You're sure this plan of yours will work? Can't you just reprogram them?"

"Absolutely not!" Mega Man exclaimed. "That's just not right! Besides, the ones that choose willingly to look for Zero are the ones that we can trust in society again."

"We're relying on those losers?" Bass rolled his eyes. "Eh, never mind. Spare me your optimistic little explanation. I'm going to do what I can to trace Zero. Even Shadow Man leaves a trail, so it shouldn't be too hard to find out where they are."

Bass teleported out, his black and yellow beam disappearing amongst the rafters. Mega Man sighed.

"I hope that confidence of his doesn't get him in trouble." he looked up where the teleport beam went. "We don't know what to expect with Zero, and once he gets activated...well, you really never know."

"That's what I mean to ask you." the human said. "Is Zero really such a threat that you're willing to have all these robots search for him?"

"I can guess what Dr. Wily has in mind." Mega Man replied. "I've known him for a long time...he calls Zero his masterpiece, so I'm not willing to take any risks. I don't really have any concrete data on Zero, though."

"Wait, yes, now you do!"

Algorhythm Man got up on his feet. He limped over to the telescreen, his unarmored legs still not fully functional. Auto had done proper work on his face, but only one of his eyes had the proper, humanish look to it. The other eye was just a glowing red light. The rest of his body sort of worked, though he was only covered by a third of his armor. The rest was just metal structure, wires, and simulated joints. Plus, he didn't glow anymore. The hardly recognisable Algorhythm Man hobbled over to the screen with a portable computer in his hand.

"This...this is what Elec Man made me see." the Cain-bot handed the portable to Mega Man. "He wanted me to know exactly how strong Zero is, so he showed me these stats of Zero's power level. As you can see...well, it's...it's astronomical."

Mega Man took the portable, not noticing Tim's odd look at the Cain-bot. Algorhythm Man did, and he dropped his eyes, unable to look back at the REA agent. He clutched an arm uncomfortably.

"Are you sure we can trust this guy, Mega Man?" Reyes asked still eyeing Algorhythm Man. "After all he's done?"

Rock looked up from his computer, a little startled. "Oh. Well yes, sure, to at least a small extent. Auto found that he had one of Dr. Wily's common mind-control viruses on him. It's exactly the same virus that Dr. Wily used on Team 9. Besides, we can check this against his memories, which can't really be faked. In any case, Algorhythm Man doesn't have any weapons anymore."

"...Right. So what happened to all your allies?"

"Team 5 is hurt pretty bad right now." Mega Man leaned in closer to the computer screen. "Wave Man is under repair, and Star Man still hasn't fully recovered from that shot to the head. Stone Man's realignment computer is shot, and Napalm Man's arms are completely melted. Out of Team 5, Gyro Man, Charge Man, Gravity Man, and Crystal Bot are the only operational ones, and I honestly doubt Crystal Bot's ability to fight difficult opponents. That, and Gravity Man is busy working on repairing the rest of the team.

"As for Team 9, it's really just a matter of getting here. Galaxy Man can get here from Star Man Observatory and Jewel Man is here in town, but the others are scattered everywhere. Concrete Man is in New York, Magma Man is all the way in Canada, I'm not sure where Plug Man is, and Splash Woman can't exactly leave the water."

"I know for a fact that Hornet, Magma, Tornado, and Plug Man are heading for your lab right now." Reyes said. "Concrete Man and Splash Woman are stuck where they are, but six out of the eight should help."

"Good to know!" Mega Man exclaimed. "But still, I'd really like to give these robots a chance. You know Team 6 wasn't built by Wily. They at least can do some good for the world."

"You're just like Dr. Light." Reyes shook his head. He wasn't sure if he approved of this or not, but he still admired the blue bomber. "I'll believe it when I see it. Alright, keep me updated. Send those stats of Zero to the REA main office so that they can see them."

"Right! See you later!"

The telescreen cut off, and Mega Man turned off the monitor before plugging the handheld computer into the wall console and sending Algorhythm's memory file where Reyes had asked. He set it down and let it load. Seeing how the unstable Algorhythm Man was still shaking on his unsteady limbs, Mega Man brought over a chair and let him sit down.

"Ah, thank you." Algorhythm's voice was quiet. "I don't suppose you've heard anything about my master's condition."

"You know what happened to him?" Mega Man asked.

The Cain-bot nodded. "Auto told me."

"Okay, well, he's in the hospital now. I had Crystal Bot check on him before she went to go visit Wily, but she said he's still in critical condition and isn't able to have visitors right now."

"Oh." Algorhythm Man's head drooped to his chest. "When...when he's better, can I see him?"

"I don't know. The REA probably wouldn't allow something like that. I would let you help in the search for Zero, but you're not repaired. Would you be willing to do something to help, though?"

Algorhythm Man snorted and let his eyes darken. "I wouldn't even if I were in perfect condition. Look at those numbers and ask me again."

Curious, Mega Man turned back to the data. Algorhythm Man was right; he hadn't as much as glanced at the data yet. This time he gave it a good look over. Then he looked it over again, his eyes widening in disbelief. Confused, he tried to do some math in his head. What in the world was this data? How could anyone possibly have numbers this high? Mega Man had seen scans of Bass' bassnium core, but even with that the numbers couldn't possibly add up on this sort of level.

"I...don't understand any of this..." Mega Man still stared down at the data pad. "How can he be this strong? Wait, do you know for sure that this is real?"

"Well, I guess being perfectly honest I can't say that the numbers weren't somehow faked by one of the Wily robots." Algorhythm Man shrugged. "But that's definitely what Elec Man showed me. He was very emphatic about me and Epic Man seeing Zero's statistics. He wanted us to know exactly what Wily was capable of."

Algorhythm Man shuddered at the very thought. He let out a despairing sigh as he continued. "I wouldn't fight Zero, not even for the promise of freedom. I'm not at all a strong robot, for all the hacking, blocking, and bragging that I do. Ugh, how could I speak so arrogantly to Bass? I was acting like an idiot. In that last fight I suppose I presented at least a little of a challenge to him, but before that I couldn't stand a chance. My poor master...I did everything for him and yet this happens. Tell Bass that I'm sorry. He saved my master from certain death..."

Algorhythm Man quieted. It was hard for him to go on. He loved Epic Man as his brother, and the midnight-blue robot had betrayed him by trying to kill their creator. Mega Man too could feel the sting. As much as he tried to get it out of his thoughts, Proto Man and his sins still haunted him. Rock knew how much the Cain-bots cared for each other. Algorhythm Man's pain could hardly be less than his.

"He was reprogrammed by Wily." Mega Man tried to comfort him. "Epic Man never would have attacked your creator otherwise."

"That's the thing. I can't be sure he wouldn't. Epi was notorious for objecting to our master's plans. Epi would have destroyed any other robots in the world and not cared a thing, but he could never believe that Dr. Cain would allow his own robots to go free when his agenda was a human planet. Of course the master wouldn't. We would die like all the rest, if Master succeeded. It never bothered me much. I was just fine with it. So much about robotkind is artificial, and well, I loved my master as any good servant would. I still do, even if that's foolish." Algorhythm Man clutched his own arms as if cold. "Please, thank Bass for me. He saved my master. Well, being perfectly fair he saved Master earlier from the instant death spike debacle. As arrogant as he was, I suppose he truly was being a protector of justice. He's not really a Wily-bot at all, no matter who created him. He's...well, too good for that."

Mega Man brightened. That was Bass, alright, and he'd known this to be true almost as long as he'd known Bass. The dark robot had never cheated or been cheap in their fights, and he never took hostages. There was something in Forte that made him principled.

"You really should tell Bass that." Mega said. "He'd really appreciate it. He doesn't like being associated with Wily."

"Ha. No, I couldn't do that." Algorhythm Man's eyes sank. "I haven't the courage to speak to him. All I want now is to care for my master, though I suppose I won't be allowed the chance to do that. I wouldn't mind so much...but before I go to the robot museum, make sure I know that my master is fine."

"I'll see what I can do. Maybe you don't have to go."

"Huh. Somehow I doubt that. It's better for robots such as myself to disappear."

"Don't say that." Mega Man shook his head. "There's always the chance. But you're going to have to learn to make choices of your own. Robots might be 'artificial', but you still have the responsibility to choose the right things no matter who your master is. Even with Dr. Cain wanting to oppress the world, you can't just follow along because that's what he wants."

"Mega Man, you're such an example of perfection." Algorhythm snorted. "Name one time you ever disobeyed Dr. Light in the name of what's right."

"I...erm, well, Dr. Light never told me to do evil things." Mega Man thought about it a moment. "Yeah, never. He guided me when I had hard decisions, but at the end of the day he could trust me to choose for myself the right thing to do in uncertain situations. He gave me principles, and I've stuck by them."

"Perfect little hero, like I said." The despair crept back into the Cain-bot's voice. "Some of us aren't so lucky with masters."

"Hence you have to make choices to decide who to serve: society, or selfishness."

"It's all a moot point with a criminal such as myself." Algorhythm Man shrugged. "Now go on. Go look for Zero and save the day. I suppose if nothing else I can be troubled to help Auto or something."

"Don't give up on yourself." Mega Man encouraged him.

"Shut up already and go."

There was no helping the robot stuck so stubbornly in his despair. He wouldn't even look up from the floor. Mega Man wished he could help, but honestly, anyone in Algorhythm Man's situation didn't have a lot to look forward to. Mega Man had a job of his own to complete, so he checked his buster and prepared to teleport out. Bass had told Mr. Reyes that it wouldn't be so hard to find Zero, but the blue bomber was less certain.

_Well, now's a good time as any to find out._

"No, Auto, you can't!"

Mega Man turned to find Napalm Man standing over the repair table with Commando Man on it. Napalm Man pointed what was left of his left arm directly at Auto, though there was nothing left of it but the upper part (the melted lower half had been removed). The other arm lay flat as flat as it could over Commando Man's neck. Mega Man got the feeling he needed to deal with this, and he reluctantly walked over.

"Hey, don't you point that finger at me!" Auto swung his own finger at Napalm. "What are you doing? I need to wake him up so he can be offered the chance for freedom."

"No, you can't" Napalm Man insisted. "Commando Man would never say yes, no matter what you told him! He's just too stubborn." Napalm Man noticed that Rock was there, so he continued on, addressing them both. "Please, Mega Man! You can't let him go to the robot museum! Just don't repair him until Dr. Wily is dead. Say you were missing a part to fix him or something! At least then he'll have a chance!"

"That's iffy!" Auto folded his arms. "I don't like getting involved in iffy matters! I suppose _you're_ the one that hid his cannon syncronizer?"

Both of the robots swore that Napalm Man blushed a deep purple. "Well, um...no, I admit nothing!"

"Yeah, yeah, guilty as charged!" Auto confidently huffed.

"Well..." Mega Man said, walking up to the repair table. "Commando Man does deserve a chance. I suppose if Reyes asks we can say that we needed more time to prepare to find Zero. And that's very true. Auto, why don't you go ahead and work on the lab's defenses instead? It's a bigger priority right now."

"Whatever you say, boss!" Auto winked before dashing off to the main computer.

"Thanks a bunch, Mega Man!" Auto snatched up his arm and shook it vigorously. "I'm not going to forget this!"

-t-

"So it really hasn't been that bad." Gyro Man explained politely. "We found out that the trajectory of the comet was four degrees off, but even that was enough at this distance for the comet not to swing into earth. It'll pass us by at least thirty thousand miles."

"Phah, NASA has never been that good at math." Wily laughed. "Being outdone by a bunch of my robots! How wonderful! Tell me they increased your funding."

"They did." Gyro Man admitted. "By a few thousand. I'm not sure how much though. Wave Man knows. Anyway, they're increasing the size of the space station, so it's probably all going to that fund anyway."

"Good! Those fools better realize just how lucky they are!"

Crystal Bot smiled. As much as she favored Forte, things went a lot more smoothly when someone else came with her to visit Dr. Wily at the hospital. Crystal let Gyro Man talk to Wily as she did what she could to freshen up the room. She had a couple of posters of space put up, and even despite Wily's objections brought in some nice sunflowers so that the room would smell at least marginally like something else other than disinfectant. For the moment, though, the room smelled heavily of nachos and refried beans, leftovers from Wily's takeout. Crystal Bot looked at the plastic container holding it all, proud of herself that she had managed to get the stuff into the hospital without anyone noticing. The girl-bot was a little too scared to ask Roll exactly how bad Mexican food was for someone with Wily's condition.

The conversation ended, interrupted by a little knock at the door. Crystal Bot went over to get it, and there at the door stood a little boy no older than five. He had the softest brown hair and the shyest eyes any of them had seen of a child's, and only with his mother's encouragement did the little boy actually enter the room. The mother, herself a brunette but not at all shy, smiled at Crystal Bot, then managed another actually genuine smile as she looked in Wily's direction.

"Go on, sweetheart." the mother encouraged her little boy. "You can say it."

"Um, okay." The boy stuck his index finger in his mouth as he approached the mad scientist's bed, speaking in the sweetest, squee-worthy voice ever. "Tank you, Dr. Wahwee..."

Albert blinked. Twisting his lips in confusion and disgust, he could only wonder what in the world induced this germ-ridden child to speak to him.

"What...the hell...is this?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." Crystal Bot went over to Wily's bedside. "You said you're too old to get the operation and for me not to waste my money, so I gave it to this little boy because he had the same thing! Now he's not gonna be sick anymore, and it's all thanks to you!" Crystal Bot smiled extra big, illustrating very clearly (and very insistently) how she wanted Wily to react. "Isn't that so nice?"

"Nice? I'm not nice!" Wily huffed, turning to the child. "Listen kid. You're going to live today, but know this. One day you'll be just as old and wrinkly as I am right now! You'll stink of medicinal creams and all your bones will make frightening noises!"

The boy's face fell, and his little mouth popped open at the scary old man laughing at him. An instant later and he ran away to his mother's knees. The woman scowled at Wily the way only a mother could. From the way Gyro Man was covering his face, few would be able to guess that he was laughing. Crystal Bot knew, and later she would yell at the propellor-bot for his sin. For now all her anger was on _harabohjee_. Wily, spotting Crystal's angry face, qwelled his laughter and sighed.

"You people need to get a sense of humor." he rolled his eyes. "Look, kid, I'm sorry. Getting old isn't all bad. There's...well, let's see...um, huh. Well, if you do good in your lifetime then when you're old you'll have a place to spend the rest of your days and people that take care of you. Okay?"

The little boy pulled his face out of his mother's knees and looked back only once, sniffling. "'Kay."

"Well, thank you, still." the mother said cautiously before turning to Crystal Bot. "Though I suppose I should thank you instead."

"Sorry, ma'am." Crystal said. "He thinks 'cause he's old he gets to be as mean as he wants."

"Why am I not surprised? Come on, Josh. Tell the nice robots bye."

"Buh-bye, wobots!" he waved at them as his mother pulled him out of the room. "Buh-bye, Dr. Wahwee!"

"Ugh. That was bizarre." Wily said, not caring that Josh and his mom weren't completely out of the door. He just directed his confusion at Crystal Bot. "What did you do that for?"

"I didn't do anything." Crystal Bot sighed with relief as door closed behind her. "I didn't tell them to come in. That mom must be trying to make her son polite or something."

"I meant why did you pay for the surgery. I'm a villain! I'm not kind!"

"Bah, I try to be good for once, and this is how you act." Crystal Bot stuck her tongue out at the human. "Bah, Grandpa! I wanted you to get credited for something good for once. I mean, you said you were too old to get the surgery, so I paid for somebody else. Isn't that so nice? It's almost as if you did something nice yourself!"

Dr. Wily slumped back in the bed. It was clear that Crystal Bot wasn't going to understand him, and he was starting to get tired. He sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey, I thought it was funny." Gyro Man grinned. "It's not like what the doctor said was a lie, either. The kid'll get old like all-"

"Shut up, Gyro." Crystal Bot went sour. Thinking of death wasn't something she wanted to be doing.

"Are visiting hours almost over?" Wily complained. "I'm tired and you two are bothering me."

"Sheesh, you don't have to be so cranky." Crystal Bot brushed some of his hair out of his face. "Um, hey, there was something I wanted to ask you."

"Hm, what is it?"

"Well, there was this thing..." Crystal Bot got a little nervous and started playing with her fingers. "When Dr. Light was in the hospital, he did this thing called 'last rites' and this priest came in and did stuff, but it's not scary and it doesn't hurt at all! I think you should do it too."

"What?" Wily sat up again, resting on his elbows. "You don't seriously expect me to participate in such superstitious nonsense, do you?"

"I'm worried about your immortal soul." Crystal Bot folded her arms. "It's about time someone is. You're not exactly...um, headed for heaven...or purgatory."

"And you think it's not too late for me now? Don't talk to me about that." Wily growled. "Now go on. I'm tired."

"Fine, Mr. Grumpy." Crystal Bot patted him on the head, but Mr. Grumpy was too much of his namesake to bother complaining about how undignified it was to be patted. And it was nice to be tucked in, so he didn't complain when Crystal pulled the blanket up over him either. "I'm going to leave you then. Be good and get some rest. _Ittaga papuhlkoehyo_."

"Um, bye, Doctor." Gyro Man said, feeling a bit awkward. "I might be here tomorrow, but I think Star Man wanted to come and see you next. I'm not sure."

"Ah, Star Man." Wily said thoughtfully. After a second of staring into space, he snorted. "Why in the world did I build him? A robot that appreciates an art form? Absurd. Heh, I was so idealistic in those days. Goodbye, then."

He waved them off. The two robots began to initialize their teleporters, but far quicker than anyone would have expected from a man as old as Wily (or someone as tightly tucked in) he reached out and grabbed Crystal Bot's hand. Gyro Man teleported away, but Crystal quickly cut off the teleportation sequence.

"_Harabohjee_!" she exclaimed. "Don't do that! You know how dangerous it is for a human to interrupt a teleport like that."

"What? I can't help it if I want to talk to you without being guarded all the time. I'm an old man. How in the world am I dangerous?"

"You're like the world's best robotics genius right now, and you say you're not dangerous?"

Crystal Bot stubbornly stuck her tongue out at him, not entirely upset. She tried to take her hand away, but Wily only held it tighter. Of course, a human's grip wasn't much compared to her own, but Crystal Bot didn't want to hurt him. Which was why she didn't move as he reached under his pillow and pulled out a zip drive. He turned Crystal's hand over and placed the zip drive there, closing her fingers over it.

"There you are." Wily said with finality as he let go and relaxed back onto his pillow. "Crystal Bot, you are the most infuriating robot I've ever had the trouble of working with, but...you're the one who's here with me now. I don't have any illusions; I know that that no one would visit me if you didn't. I want to reward you for that. You pretty much are my dau- um, granddaughter. I always criticized Dr. Light for being so attached to his robots, and yet here I am. I'm sure a human granddaughter would be every bit as frustrating, overconcerned, and well, as sweet as you."

Crystal Bot stared at the zip drive, glancing ever other second at Dr. Wily. Uncertain, she turned it over in her fingers. She knew how Wily was. She knew his trickery and deceit just as well as any. Glancing once more at his face, Crystal Bot was puzzled. If Wily was lying, he was doing a good job of not showing it on his face. Her eyes studied him for any sign of gloating or lies, but she couldn't find more than just the faintest whiff of arrogance, and Crystal Bot wasn't confident enough in her ability to tell faces to determine if that meant he was lying or not.

"Um, what is this?"

"It's your inheritance." Wily explained. "The last location of one of my hidden emergency labs. That's where the my last technology is being kept, and if you want to see it before the government swoops in like vultures, you better get going. It's even got something I know you want to see: Zero."

Crystal Bot gasped, staring at the zip drive in shocked horror: it wasn't fair! This was exactly the sort of thing Bass warned her against: Wily trying to take advantage of her love of technology. She just knew that the drive was full of some horrible set of viruses, ready to take her over. Or perhaps there was a trap over at the lab. Observing Wily didn't help her form any conclusions. The man seemed very casual about it, though he did roll his eyes at her.

"I know how you were designed." Wily scoffed, offended at her reluctance. "Any virus that interferes with your head is designed to be quarantined and can at best take out only one of your CPUs. I'm not dumb enough to try and make a virus that couldn't work on you. The only way it would work would be if you let all three of your minds access to it at the same time, and I know you don't trust me that much. But there isn't a virus, so you don't have to worry about it. Go on, take a look."

Wily was starting to get grumpy again, and the temptation was just too much. Crystal Bot let her third mind scan the zip drive first, and much to her surprise, Wily was telling the truth. There was nothing wrong with the disc. Not a single virus, spyware or tracking cookie. Only then did Crystal Bot open the files. Wily wasn't lying about those either. Besides a mysterious set of coordinates that seemed to be up in northern California, there were some readme files that gave a list of all the things the evil scientist kept tucked away in his lab: virus plans, armor designs, blueprints, spare parts, and the like. And there was Zero.

This was a lab that Crystal Bot herself knew nothing about, other than its general existence. Some of the older robots might know, primarily Teams 1 and 2, but Crystal Bot herself had never been there. It was an older place that she had heard of in rumors, a place that Wily used to keep his most important works when Mega Man destroyed his skull castles. She bit her lip in distress. This was a place she had wanted to go, but the only chance she had - when Skull Castle #10 was destroyed - she had been one of the first sent ahead to get things started for what would turn out to be the last Skull Castle. She shook with nervous delight at being allowed to go.

But she wasn't allowed, she reminded herself. She was a good guy now, and that meant she had to tell Bass, and probably Mega Man too, what was going on with this. Crystal Bot's spirit sank a bit. After all, if she was going to be appropriate, logical, and safe, she should tell them. And then they would find out and tell the government before she could get a good look at it all, and they would have the technology instead of her.

A smile crept up on Dr. Wily's face, and it was contagious. Crystal Bot found herself grinning and she didn't know why.

"Aw, Grandpa, you know me too well." she giggled. "But um, you know I'm gonna have to tell my ethics agent about this, and then they'll see all your stuff."

Wily's head fell back with a groan, and he rubbed a hand across his bald head, as if doing so would bring good luck. "Yes, yes, I know. For some reason my little girl wants to be a good guy. Hmph! Well, I'm going to have to accept that. It's not like I have a choice. Of course you're going to tell the REA and all that nonsense. But you at least should have the first look. I put all that effort into him, only for it to fall into the hands of the government. That's just how things go, I'm afraid..."

His voice was so pitiful and so drained of life that Crystal Bot could feel herself giving in. She shook the terrible thought out of her head, shuddering a little. Fingering the zip drive delicately, she wondered if she should give it back.

"Um...no, Grandpa, I don't think I can." she finally said. "I said I'm a good girl, and I intend to be one. I can get in real trouble going to investigate this without telling anybody, even if it's not trapped or anything. I better not go...um, at least not without Forte-kun."

"Pffft." Wily sneered at the thought of Bass, though he turned his head away so Crystal couldn't see. After a second, he slowly turned it back, softening his tone. "Alright, alright, it's your choice. I guess I'll have to deal with it. Oh? Do you hear that? It must be Gyro Man in the hall outside. He's coming to stop you. There goes the only chance you have to look at Zero. Pity, too-"

Before the last word had even got out of his mouth, Crystal Bot teleported away. Wily laughed out loud with a sharp "ha!" He knew Crystal Bot too well. His little girl couldn't resist technology. The confident man leaned back in his bed and tried to let the smile disappear. It was hard, but he managed it - he wasn't lying about the footsteps outside. Already he could hear the sound of more than one robot heading to his room. It was easy to hear, even from behind the door.

"Five...four...three..."

Wily heard the very voices he expected to hear yelling at the cops outside his door. There was the determined snap of Gyro Man; the patient, worried, and altogether sickeningly cute Mega Man; and Wily's personal favorite, the bellicose roar of Forte as he berated the cops for not checking on Crystal Bot ("there's a window in the door for a reason!"). The evil scientist, though attempting to be asleep, couldn't help grinning.

"Two...one."

"What the hell did you do to her, old man?"

There it was. For show, Wily took his time stretching, and gave a yawn. Let Bass have his evil glare and questions. Wily meant to take his time, and not even his loudmouth creation was going to change that. He was just glad that his room door couldn't be slammed. Behind Bass entered Mega Man and Gyro, both equally angry (but thankfully nowhere as noisy).

"I didn't do anything, for your information. She teleported away, that's all." Wily said, still yawning. "How am I supposed to know where she went?"

"You're a liar!" Bass snarled, wishing very much that he could shoot a human.

"Yeah!" Gyro Man joined in, pointing an accusing finger. "I saw you! You interrupted her teleport!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must be seeing things." Wily could feel the corner of his mouth going upwards. He tried to force it down. After all, he was supposed to be annoyed that these irritating robots woke him up. "I wouldn't do that. It's stupid for a human to try because they can get their atoms scrambled. I've got enough wrong with me already."

None of the heroes knew why he bothered to lie. Wily was only marginally better than Bass at hiding his emotions; his vicious, malignant grin spread out over his face even as he tried his best to be cranky. It wasn't working at all, and as the old man's sneer widened, the robots darkened. Every struggle against his merriness only made Wily grin all the more, with nothing left to his deception but a very false wrinkling of the brow.

"Erg, why aren't you dead yet?" Bass snarled, lifting a buster. "Just tell us where she is already!"

"Put that away before you get yourself in trouble." Wily retorted. "I don't know where Crystal Bot is and you're just going to have to deal with it."

Bass was long out of patience with his creator, and if he had human skin he would be red with rage. "You're going to have to deal with-"

"Bass, wait."

Mega Man, the only cool one in the room, pulled back on Bass' arm and gave him a look before going over to the bed. Rock casually pulled out a chair, sitting beside the bed stiffly. Making himself relax a little, Rock settled his hands on his lap and looked at the mad scientist with a put-on pleasantness, letting out a breath. Wily finally managed to get a hold of his runaway face, and he lifted an eyebrow in doubt. What in the world was this little blue guy doing?

"So, Dr. Wily." Mega Man said, feeling a bit awkward as he did so but continuing nonetheless. "How have you been?"

Everyone in the room stared at the blue bomber like he was utterly off his rocker. Bass and Gyro Man glanced at each other, silently questioning if they should do something about this. Wily, suspicious, was the only one not stunned enough to stop speaking. Well, he could at least manage one word.

"...What?"

"We've known each other for a long time, but it's been forever since we've actually _talked_." Mega Man continued, faking a happy banter. "Between me ruining your plans and arresting you, there hasn't really been that much time to just, you know, hang out. Let's make up for lost time now! I've got so much to tell you! You wouldn't believe how Light Laboratories Inc. has been changing the face of technology, and we're making so much money at it too! Just last week we wrote three new contracts with the Swedish government. Aw man, too bad you had to go on those schemes to take over the world, or _you _could be running the lab today and be rich and admired too! Wow, we've got so much to catch up on. I think I'll just sit right here and tell you all about it! It's a good thing that I'm a robot and don't need to sleep or anything; I can just sit here forever talking about it!"

The Wily-bots in the room were starting to get it, but Dr. Wily himself was starting to twitch with anger. His whole face shriveled up in a prunish mask.

"What the hell are you trying to do?"

"I mean, I really should be looking for Crystal Bot," It was Mega Man's turn to pretend he wasn't smiling, and nothing he could do would persuade the sides of his mouth to settle down. "And if I had her coordinates, I could go look for her instead. But I guess since I have nothing better to do, I'll just sit here and catch up with you! So, Dr. Wily, how's that taking over the world thing going? Making progress, I hope?"

"Haha," the laugh burst out of Bass, despite himself. "Well, Wily, I guess since you're just an old man and everything, I don't need to worry about you causing trouble. I'll just leave you here with Rock, then. Have fun! Hahaha! Let's go, Sandwich Boy."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Get back in here, you fools!" Wily snapped. "Don't leave me in here with _him_!"

It was by far too late to get either robot to obey his whims. Wily stared with disgust at Mega Man, who was still sitting in his chair stiff as a ramrod, smiling his fake smile. Wily's eyes threatened him to stay silent, but of course that wasn't going to work.

"So, how many years has it been since you left the labs?" Mega Man asked, pretending to rack his mind for the answer. "Well, right after you left and I defeated you the first time, we expanded our company to include deluxe microprocessors for basic computers, getting in on the Japanese market with our 102 gigabyte handheld computers. Dr. Light invented new robots to decrease pollution in cities and also filter any oil spilled in the ocean, for which he won _another_ Nobel Peace Prize..."

-t-

Crystal Bot knew she was being stupid. She knew it at the bottom of her mind and for the life of her she had no intention of letting that knowledge get in her way. After all, what harm would a look do?

_Just to be safe, I'll adjust the coordinates by several yards. Yeah._

And with that, Sonata teleported out, zipping upwards in a green and cyan beam. Crystal Bot's teleport beam landed just outside of an old warehouse, lost in the middle of a valley. From the pattern of the mountains, Crystal recognised the place as far into northern California, where she herself rarely went.

_Huh, I must be maybe fifty miles outside of Southerland._ she guessed. _Okay, cool._

Wandering outside of the huge metal structure for a bit, she could tell it was old. The metal walls bore streaks of rust that dashed down the sides of the building. Crystal Bot got suspicious. Why would Wily hide out in such a crappy place? It wasn't like him to put up with such nasty surroundings. Besides, this was an open area with plenty of mountains and hills that could spot it. Wily was hardly dumb enough to do much in a place that any given sattelite or simple wanderer could find.

"Well...I might as well find out what's going on..."

The sight of the doors made it even worse. The vast double doors, steel reinforced and strong in appearance, were off of their hinges. The left door could barely even be called a door - it was instead "a metal panel barely at all attached to a doorframe for some reason". It half-blocked the right door, but since it opened inwards Crystal could open that side of the double doors and duck under where the left door had fallen. Though it was daytime outside, the innards of the building were dark, and Crystal Bot had to find the light switch before she could continue her investigation. Finding the large metal handle (Crystal always loved archaic technology) she flipped it in the hope for some lights. All she got were a couple of hanging lamps from the ceiling, half of which managed something of a steady flicker.

The right side of the metal building was all a mess of victorian technology. From its decrepit condition, it was difficult for Crystal Bot to determine what exactly it was. The mess of panels, huge organ pipes, and cords all over the place confused her completely. She had to search her brain for data on technology over a century old to find out the answer.

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "This is a Telharmonium! It was invented by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897, and it's one of the earliest electronic music devices ever created. Oooh..."

Her musings over the antiquated music maker distracted her entirely from all else, halting her investigation as long as she admired the Victorian machine. It was marvelous! Crystal Bot found herself walking around the complex machines as she stared. She didn't even notice the other side until she stepped on something and nearly tripped and fell.

"Oops! Ack..." Crystal Bot managed to catch herself before she fell face-first on the floor. "What's this?"

It wasn't until she was holding it in her hands that Crystal Bot realized what it was, and once this realization hit her, she cast it to the floor. It was Elec Man's severed hand, and as she flung it down, it skidded into a pile of metal, yellow and black. The tech-bot stared at this for several seconds before she realized that this pile was the rest of Elec Man's chopped up remains. Crystal Bot slapped a hand over her mouth, trying her hardest not to scream. As much as she hated the arrogant electric robot, it was easy to imagine the terror he had gone through. Though half of his face was gone, his horrified eyes were still perfectly intact, frozen in their desperate expression.

Sonata thought she was going to be sick, but the carnage didn't end there. A metal spike was run through a single tire, and that was all of Nitro Man's remains that Crystal Bot could find - not that she looked particularly hard for them. Scattered bits of Shadow Man were easy enough to find, ironically enough. It was the least subtle that the ninja-bot had ever been in his entire operating existence. Crystal Bot could hardly walk two steps without finding another shuriken. Hard Man was a tough robot, which was perhaps why the bottom half of his body was still intact. Still, the top half of him was gone, and she shuddered to wonder what in the world could slice through Hard Man with such precise cuts. He wasn't chopped up either, so whatever sword did it must have been magnificent.

Crystal Bot was so busy staring at him that she almost passed by Metal Man. Almost. She looked to her left to find herself not two feet away from Metal Man, his eyes wide with terror and one of his own metal blades pinning him to a support pillar. Crystal Bot jumped away from him immediately, trying not to whimper. Chill Man lay only a few feet away, and from the icy patches on the floor and walls around him, his death hadn't been a quiet one.

_It's not all melted off...whatever happened here didn't happen that long ago..._

Crystal Bot started shivering. This was all one big mistake. What was she doing here without Forte? Why had she listened to Wily? It was only by sheer luck that she had come late enough for nothing to have happened to her.

_But what happened?_ Crystal Bot allowed herself one more fearful glance around the macabre place. _Who could have done this? Why in the world would Dr. Wily want me to see any of this? Did somebody find this place and-_

_**Clunk.**_

She stopped. She couldn't go on. It was all over. The attacker hadn't gone anywhere; he fell from the ceiling right in front of Crystal Bot, his heavy armored feet noisily coliding with the floor to send a ring echoing through the vast chamber. In the darkness his long, green plasma sword glowed, illuminating him in the most frightening light possible. Crystal had the most perfect view of his spectacular red armor and sweeping blonde hair that extended a total five feet from his head, and every inch of it luscious and golden. All of this shone in Crystal Bot's perifery. It was hard to pull her gaze from that face. It was a face without pity, without concern. All it showed was a grim curiosity, as well as just the lift of the arm to prepare to strike.

This was indeed Wily's masterpiece, Zero.

_...How...how could I have ever thought him ugly...?_

As a frightened Crystal Bot stood there frozen, her frightened thoughts scattering in a million directions, Zero watched. His sword arm stilled, and he stared into her eyes with a cold glare. Then, all of a sudden he smiled. It was the worst smile Crystal Bot had ever seen. She knew Zero recognised her. The giant robot chuckled to himself, stepping closer. And then...

And then he patted her on the top of her head and teleported out.

Crystal Bot sucked in a breath, and it was just as much a scream as a gasp. She lifted her hands to her face and crumpled to the floor to glitch, not caring that she was still uncomfortably close to Chill Man's corpse.

_" - Forte! - " _she screamed into the air. _" - Come and save me! - "_

Before she could glitch three times Bass was there, and two more teleport beams landed to reveal Mega Man and Gyro Man.

"Holy crap!" Gyro Man exclaimed. "What happened here?"

"It was Zero!" Crystal Bot cried. "He was here and he killed them all! But he teleported away!"

"See? This is exactly why I told you not to trust Wily!" Bass went right over to her and got in her face. "Where the hell did he go?"

"Stop yelling at her!" Mega Man exclaimed.

He went over to her side to pull her to her feet, only to have the stubborn girl shove him away and stand up on her own. All she conceded to Rock was a stubborn, pouty glare in his direction before turning to her boss.

"I traced these coordinates." Crystal Bot sent everyone a transmission of the number sequence. "I'm not stupid."

"These coordinates are right in the middle of Monstropolis!" Gyro Man exclaimed.

Bass was the first one to teleport out, to no one's surprise. Gyro Man was next to go, but Mega Man stayed a moment. He just couldn't understand why Crystal Bot could so stubbornly persist in hating him. For the moment, he didn't try. It was hard for him not to pity her when so much destruction was around her; Crystal Bot gazed in horror at the destroyed robots, her lower lip trembling at the sight of them. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her, and whatever thought was going through her mind, it certainly wasn't a good one. She was going to start crying any moment now, Mega Man just knew it.

"Crystal Bot, are you-"

"I'm fine, Rock." she said. "Go find Zero. I've got to stay here and see if there's anything I can discover."

Crystal Bot sniffed, pulling herself together at once. She straightened up and released the death grip she had on her own arms. Her posture turned no-nonsense, and she began walking away from Mega Man as fast as she could while still trying to be casual. It didn't work at all. Her attempts at being casual, while completely sweet, weren't good enough to fool the most gullible child. Mega Man shook his head, giving a small, knowing smile. It was sad of her to pretend not to be afraid, the poor thing.

"Crystal," Mega Man said. "I've contacted the lab. Jewel Man and Bruce are all coming to help you. You don't have to do this alone."

Crystal Bot turned back to him and glared. "I don't..."

She abruptly stopped, slamming her mouth into a straight line. With a sigh and downcast eyes, Crystal nodded solemnly. She clutched her arms again, letting go of her insistence that everything was just fine.

"Thanks, Rock."

She didn't notice him teleport out. Neither did she particularly notice when a green/yellow beam and a red/white beam each fell to the ground behind her. The poor girl stood stock still, knowing that she should do something.

"Bless my bolts!" Auto exclaimed. "Look at this awful mess!"

That snapped Crystal Bot out of her funk, and she turned to see Roll and Auto, the first of which was quick to come by her side.

"Crystal Bot, are you alright?" Roll said. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, no." Sonata pouted, getting a little annoyed with everyone's worry. "This place is...just..."

Roll nodded vigorously. "I know, isn't it?"

"Well, the first thing we have to do is take lots of memory pictures!"

Auto went at all angles, making sure that he caught every single detail of the gruesome Telharmonium. Crystal Bot nodded to Roll, and they both went around as they began to guess the more specific fates of Chill, Nitro, Metal, Shadow, and Elec Man. Roll gasped at it, and as she still clung to Crystal Bot's arm, she wasn't sure if she was holding on to support or be supported.

Roll took a deep breath, wanting to cry or faint as she stared at the horrific shreds of the robots. But she wasn't sad for them. Crystal Bot hadn't been there. She never knew Zero and how kind he was; she never got to see that side of him, and how it tortured Zero every day that he once had been a Maverick and slaughtered helpless reploids.

"Oh, poor Zero!" Roll found herself saying.

"Poor Zero? Are you crazy?"

Roll almost winced as she found herself face to face with a bewildered Crystal Bot. But she kept control. Roll turned her eyes downward.

"Think about it." she said quietly. "Zero never even had a choice. He was programmed to be evil, and there's nothing he can do about it. Now he'll never be pardoned or have a chance to be free."

"Oh. I see." Crystal blinked a bit, disappearing into her thoughts. "Huh, well, he didn't kill me when he had the chance. Maybe he's nice to girl-bots."

Somehow Roll wasn't convinced of that, but upon hearing this Auto immediately turned around, nearly tripping over Shadow Man's foot as he hurried over to the girls.

"That's right! What's wrong with me?" he thundered. "Now, tell me everything, Crystal! What did he do? What did he say? Come on, tell me, tell me!"

\\\\\\\

Authors' notes:

- Yeah, Star Man Observatory is the official name of the Team 5 space station. The government named it that to keep Star Man from being so upset that so many people are on his sattelite.

- Frost Man and Blizzard Man are really good friends. Blizzard Man never makes fun of him, and Frost Man likes Blizz's stories about Canada.

- _Ittaga papuhlkoehyo_ means "I'll see you later", in probable future form. Crystal Bot is saying that she'll likely return.

- The Telharmonium is real. None of them exist today, because the metal from the last one was scrapped in 1950. I'm writing one here because I want one. Plain and simple.

- Okay y'all, just to warn you, the next chapter is going to take a while. I have it mostly written up, but it needs some extensive battle scenes. You'll like it.

Character profiles!

=====Search Man

**"Target, get set!"**

Good point: a broad outlook

Bad point: cowardice

Likes: booby trap

Dislikes: social interaction

You may be wondering where certain robots are. I don't mention all of them. Well, several of them were killed during Okkusenman when Mega Man and company were destroying the last Wily Castle. Others were destroyed in the days after that before Bass went to Russia. A few were killed by Mega Man since then and now. For whatever reason, or namely because I'm not inspired for them, these robots do not appear in the story, or at least in this timeline.

Search Man is one of these. Ugh, he has the worst robot master theme of all the Mega Man Classic series. Notedly, I don't actually hate any of the other themes. They're all good in their own way. Not so Search Man's. It's pretty dang nasty and unfitting for him. But as far as the robot master himself goes, I don't mind him. He's a cool idea. I swear I thought Search on the BN cartoons was Sniper Joe.

Anyway, Search Man was created essentially because Wily was testing the theory that two heads are better than one. Wily started scetching Search Man as early as MM5, thinking about how lame MM5 was. However, Search Man wasn't begun until a little after MM7, as Wily had to finish half of the robot masters for MM7 during that time. Wily was planning on using Team 8 a little later and upgrading them more, but the falling evil energy prevented that. As a result, all of the MM8 robots call out their moves before actually doing them.

This is perhaps the most tragic for Search Man who would be quite powerful otherwise. He was meant to be a surveillance robot, but that got sidetracked with the MM8 scheme. Search Man went to Africa to cause trouble, though to be fair this was because he (1) liked Africa, and (2) was a complete coward. He figured that he might be able to hide there and not be defeated by Mega Man. Fortunately for him, Wily never knew this.

So he was defeated by Mega Man and brought to the robot museum. He got out during the events of Okkusenman. He didn't have much time to rest and relax and do whatever he wanted, what with all Drs. Cain and Wily running around. He was eventually destroyed by Mega Man about a week after the last Skull Castle was destroyed, and thus Signal Man was unable to force him into Dr. Cain's service. Search Man now resides in the robot museum.

At no time was Search Man ever too close a friend to Napalm or Commando Man. It may seem obvious to group them together (as it was to the Wily-bots) but generally Napalm and Commando found him annoying. Commando Man was especially annoyed that he could never seem to have a civilized conversation with the first head, who he thought might be a decent robot. The second head, however, was way too annoying. Napalm Man had about the opposite opinion, as the first head somehow got the idea that he could boss Napalm Man around.

For the record, Search Man isn't really fond of them either. He preferred to spend his time figuring out new and better traps, most of which got used during the MM8 scheme. He even designed the traps for Sword Man's hideout, saving Wily a lot of time. He even designed traps that would be used in MM9 and MM10. In the alternate timeline, Search Man was involved in designing a lot of trouble for the good guys.

=====Flame Man

**"Oops! Time to refill the oil!"**

Good point: Punctual

Bad point: Demanding

Likes: Trimming his beard

Dislikes: Cheap oil

Flame Man! I actually love this guy's theme. It's really the best in MM6. I personally found that game's music slightly underwhelming, for the most part. It's not horrible though.

Flame Man comes from Saudi Arabia, where he once guarded oil drilling sites. He likes the country and is not too irritated about dust. He was signed up for the robot master championships immediately when his masters found out about them, and very much wanted to win. He practiced for hours and hours, which was really annoying to his owners because he consummed way more oil. But he went nonetheless, mainly to advertise about his owners' company. And then Wily took him over.

Wily's actually very happy to say he never built Flame Man. As much as he loved designing a hideout for Flamey, he found the amount of oil needed to maintain him was cost-restrictive. He let Flame Man take over an oil refinery so that it would save money. However, this flaw was remembered by Wily later, and it's the primary reason why Wily didn't break him out during MM7. He did break Flame Man out during Okkusenman, mostly because he wanted as many robots as he could.

Yep. That means Flame Man spent way too much time in the robot museum, and is thus a little more rebellious to his team leaders, Yamato and Knight Man. Not too much, though. He liked them as people, but he was just much too independent. However, when the last Skull Capsule was destroyed, Flame Man did consent to go with Team 6 as they tried to escape to Canada. This ended in a failed attempt to steal more oil from a Canadian refinery, because, well, Flame Man needs this three times a day. All but him of Team 6 ended up being captured not only by Signal Man, but by the Wily-bots he'd already reprogrammed and forced to serve him.

Oh, and if you're wondering about his like, yes, Flame Man does like trimming his beard. You protest, saying that he doesn't have one. That's right, he doesn't. He trimmed it off already.

Right now, he's still in the robot museum. Mega Man, as he said, is going to try to free him for the sake of Team 6.


	21. Entrance

Splash Woman's fingers gripped the handle of her trident with dark anxiety. Normally the sound of the waves hitting the rocks was a peaceful one, and nothing pleased her better than to sit on her boulder and watch to make sure the passing vessels avoided the rocks and went through the more peaceful waters to Monstropolis' docks. Today it just wasn't working. Splash Woman found herself gripping her trident too tight. Annoyed in her thoughts, she smacked the water with her tail. Peering at her mermaid fin, she sneered and smacked harder.

It was Zero. She'd never been able to walk, and now the most powerful and dangerous robot known to man was loose somewhere in Monstropolis. And she was stuck here. At the very least she was tempted to call up Mega Man and have him take her power so that he would be stronger against Zero. But alas, bothering him was out of the question, and she couldn't go on land without a special vehicle - not exactly ideal for fighting. For the first time in her life she was annoyed with Dr. Light for the way he had designed her.

The waters stirred. Splash Woman was only alert momentarily. She knew the sound of the robotic engines that carried this robot to her. She made her guess, and was correct: Dive Man. The grey Cossack-bot showed up only at rare occasions on her shore, as he had his business on the other side of the world. Normally his presense would at least bring up a smile, but today Splash Woman found it hard to settle down. As much as she told herself that Zero wasn't the only threat in the world and someone would have to be watching the waters, it still wasn't fair that she had to sit this one out.

Dive Man emerged from the water. Splash Woman did smile, but this one was a little awkward and she found herself lifting a hand to cover it. Poor Dive Man would have to traverse the entire Atlantic to see her, and for some reason no one could explain, he got seasick. It wasn't as bad for Dive Man now as it was years ago, but with having to swim so far the merrow-bot could swear that Dive Man's orange face was looking a little green.

"Hello, Dive Man." Splash Woman's voice sounded like song, and immediately produced a calming effect in the Cossack-bot. "It's good to see you again."

"I thought I'd come and see you while I had the chance." Dive Man replied, already starting to look better. "I admit I wanted to hear you sing, but you were slapping the water with your tail again. You only do that when you're upset."

Splash Woman grinned sheepishly, and would have blushed if she could. Instead she laid her trident on the rock beside her as she answered. "You know me that well, huh?"

"Sure do." Dive Man sat down beside her. "So tell me, what's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing I have control over." Splash Woman sighed. "I just...I can't fight Zero. I know Mega Man is strong and nothing has ever beaten him before, it's just that...I want to fight too! It drives me out of my mind that I can't be there. I've talked to Light Laboratories, and apparently the recently defeated Wily-bots are going to be pardoned if they fight Zero. It's just not fair. I've been a good robot all..well, most of my life, and the short time I wasn't was Dr. Wily's fault."

"It's not like you to be so jealous." Dive Man said "You do such good work at the pier. There hasn't been a single drowning incident in the past five years due to you. We've all got our part to play in the world, and while it's not as glorious for some of us as it is for others, everyone's important."

"I know, I know." Splash Woman felt like shoving Dive Man into the water for being so completely cheesy. "But...I can't help but feel that I should be there."

"Don't worry yourself about it. That's just your overactive sense of justice acting up. It's really admirable of you to feel that way-"

"Shhht! Listen!"

Splash Woman suddenly snatched up her trident again, clutching it with feriocity as she listened. There was that sound again. She wanted desperately to deny what that sound was, but talented ears such as hers knew what she was hearing. She guessed correctly the more common visitor to her rocky shore. As he rose out of the water, Splash Woman made sure that her crystal trident was pointed right at him.

"Ahoy, love!" Pirate Man said, coming out of the water and gently bowing to Splash Woman. "I was travelling the seas as normal, coming this way to hear a sea shanty from my sweet Splash Woman. Only t'wasn't song I heard, but the angered blows of your tail on the water. What troubles you, love? Oh, wait, Dive Man, o' course." Pirate Man glared in the Cossack-bot's direction. "Allow me to rid you of his nuisance."

"You're the one who should leave." Dive Man insisted, his look no less ugly. "Splash Woman doesn't like hanging around criminals like you. Stop bothering her."

"Will both of you stop?" Splash Woman tried not to roll her eyes. She had to keep a watch out for Pirate Man. "We're robots, and you're making this sound like some sort of demented love triangle! I'd much rather be fighting Zero than dealing with the two of you right now."

Splash Woman huffed in annoyance. She hunched over, and with a sight she lay her trident across her knee, still aimed mostly in the Wily-bot's direction. There was no telling what the thief-bot would do. She just didn't feel like putting up with her two admirers today.

"Ah ha!" Pirate Man said, nodding his head and lifting his claw to his chin knowingly. "So it's that that upsets ye? Well, love, I'll do the best I can to remedy your ailment. I myself shall go to Monstropolis and fight Zero in your stead. In the name of Splash Woman an' her fine beauty, I'll destroy 'im!"

"No! You can't do that!" Dive Man stood on his feet, readying his torpedoes in anger. "I was going to fight for her!"

"Ha, ha, argh! We'll I've said it first, so I'll be fightin' in her name." A haughty Pirate Man taunted. "Too slow, you land-lubbing sea slug!"

"That doesn't make sense! How is a sea slug 'land-lubbing'?"

"Easy! It goes on the shore and dies!" Pirate Man growled. "And now step aside. I'll be fightin' for my lady Splash, and you can go bring your seasick carcass back to Russia!"

Pirate Man's claw snapped dangerously, and his other arm pointed right at Dive Man. The Cossack-bot wasn't going to be caught off guard. Already he was preparing to fire his homing torpedoes, and if it weren't for the sudden appearance of the crystal trident, a battle would begin. As it was, Splash Woman's intrusion interrupted their preparations, and they both looked at her, desperate for an answer. Which one would represent the merrow in Monstropolis?

"Neither of you can fight for me if you kill each other." Splash Woman insisted, glaring at them both. "So just-"

"She's right!" Dive Man really didn't mean to interrupt, but he couldn't help himself. Frowning, he turned back to Pirate Man. "Alright, here's the deal. We don't bother each other in any way until Zero is dead. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" Pirate Man grinned gladly. "Aye, that I'll do. After all, the robots that fight Zero gain a pardon from their crimes, and once I'm free of that, perhaps my lady will sing for me all the more often, and point her spear at me less."

"No!" Dive Man was immediately horrified. "Okay, if I'm the one that defeats Zero, you have to stay away from her!"

"Not agreed! Argh, ha ha!" Pirate Man roared with merriment. "I'll see ye in Monstropolis, Dive Man! May the best pirate win! Arr hargh!"

"No, wait!"

Both robots teleported out, and Splash Woman sat there stunned. She lay her trident aside again, then promptly facepalmed.

"Man-bots!" she fussed, slapping her tail against the water.

-t-

Things were tense at Light Laboratories. Auto was plenty nervous, and now that shipping was getting back in order he had several parts and supplies headed for the lab. He was getting way to antsy waiting for them to come. Already he'd filled one of the side A.I. labs with as many E tanks and energy/weapons pellets as he could to be as prepared as possible for any outcome. Zero was on the loose, and he wanted to be ready.

There was only one problem. Nobody knew where Zero was. The teleport coordinates provided by Crystal Bot were clearly for the center of Monstropolis, but absolutely nothing had happened since Zero got loose. There was neither hide nor hair of him. Granted, this gave Mega Man time to prepare, but it was all the more worrisome not knowing where Zero was, or even worse, not knowing what he was doing during this time. Clearly Wily had put a lot of planning into this. Nor could he be questioned: the very night Zero was found, Wily fell into a coma.

Keeping security at the highest levels helped Mega Man occupy the time. He already had three separate force shields that blocked out all teleportation - even Crystal Bot's teleporters - and allowed in only robots with specific security codes. As much as Dr. Light wanted his home free of excessive weaponry, Auto couldn't help installing some autocannons. And for good measure, Auto got out his handy dandy bazooka, which hung over his back even as he worked at the lab's computers to secure them against viruses. With Zero on the loose, he wouldn't take any risks.

A blue teleport beam landed in the lab, and a cheery Mega Man rematerialized inside the building. "Alright, Auto, we've been approved to use the detector spikes that Bass was using in Russia. I need as many as you've got!"

"Great! Crystal Bot was just helping me bring some to the lab." Auto exclaimed. "I just knew that they would approve! Didn't I tell you?"

"You sure did." Mega Man grinned. "Hey, teleport out all the ones you have in here. I'll go help Crystal Bot bring in more of them."

"Good, go hurry her up." Auto shook a finger. "That girl-bot is taking forever!"

"Probably she's trying hard to make sure she's got everything she needs for Bass." Mega Man said. "Besides, she doesn't know how the store room is kept."

The supply room wasn't that far, so as Mega Man walked over to it he found himself starting to worry a little. Was his store room really that disorganized? Roll did a good job keeping the place in order...but of course the way she'd been acting lately, who knew? Mega Man tried to remember if she had organized the room in the past few months. He didn't remember. This annoyed him more than ever. He spent so much time out of the lab that he hardly knew what was taking place inside it anymore. Guilt began to get at him. He was supposed to be taking care of his family, and he hadn't as much as seen Roll in the past two days. There was just so much going on.

_I'm definitely getting some time off after all this is over. I need to spend more time with Roll._ Mega Man decided as he opened the store room door. _She's got to...oh no..._

Roll obviously hadn't cleaned up the store room in the recent past, though he couldn't imagine why the room would be in such a horrible mess. The metal shelves, which had actually been screwed into both the ceiling and the floor were now scattered across the room, smashed at every angle. Navigating that room was difficult even for a robot. And that wasn't even counting all of the materials that had been on the shelves. Replacement parts were everywhere, ripped apart and smashed. Shredded wire covered everything, as well as splatters of the robot-grade A-paint. They owned several gallons of the stuff - that much was obvious from the paint splashed everywhere over the walls and torn apart materials. Under all that mess, the floor was unseeable.

A shimmer. Mega Man glanced to the side; Crystal Bot was not stealthy. To be fair, she was at least a little bit less shiny than normal. The A-paint had splashed on her too, and now she stood there watching Mega Man with wide, expressionless eyes, looking a fair mess with all the red spatters on her armor.

"Crystal!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Wow, you scared me! What happened here? Are you alright?"

"Yes, Mega. I'm fine." she said, blinking once. "I'm great. Better than ever, you might say."

"Then...how did all this happen...?" a confused Rock guestured over at the mess.

"I did all this, duh. What, are you stupid or something?" she rolled her eyes. "And now, good buddy, we have talking to do."

Crystal Bot pulled a pink crystal out of her hood, the largest pink crystal Mega Man had ever seen. Without warning she jumped at him, charging with the crystal pointing straight for him. Mega Man hopped back with his lightning instincts, instantly activating his ultra armor. He still shivered. There was little his ultra armor could do against Crystal Bot's instant death spike. Though she had to stand still for it to be instant death, the pink crystal in Crystal Bot's firm grip was dangerous nonetheless. Mega Man glanced for only one second back at the door. Crystal Bot was in between him and escape. He couldn't get past her without risking being fried to death.

Seeing his worry, Crystal Bot only grinned the harder. "Now, Rock, old buddy, old pal, you're going to be telling me exactly where your little brother Mega Man X is. You're going to tell me all of the codes for me to get through his security. If you don't, then I destroy you and take the information from your fried brain. I know how to recover information from crystal spike burned CPUs, Mega. There's no point in resisting me. Just save me some time and make this simple, okay?"

"Bass didn't tell you?" This at least was a relief to Mega Man. "Oh, good."

The relief disappeared at once when he saw Crystal's happy and rather demented grin. She delightedly squealed, laughing with a deep, nasty sound. "Stupid Bass knows? Great! It's so easy for his cute little technician to rip it out of his head that way! Ugh, I'll have to pretend to be his happy little servant again, but at least I'll get what I need." Crystal Bot returned her deadly red eyes to Rock, and he shuddered. "Now I just have to kill you."

_" - Auto! Crystal Bot's gone crazy! You've got to- - "_

There was no time to send transmissions. As little as he wanted to be fighting Crystal Bot, Mega Man had to jump out of the way or suffer the death spike consequences. For good measure, Crystal Bot tugged at one of the heavy shelving units (this one was still fresh with yellow paint) and hurled it at the door.

"That won't do much good..." Mega Man said, trying not to fall over. Being forced to stand on a pile of metal debris wasn't easy to balance on even for a robot. "They can still teleport in."

"Wow, you really do think I'm utterly stupid." Crystal Bot scowled dangerously, coming all the closer with her energy crystal. She hardly even seemed to notice the difficulty of climbing over boxes of wiring and keyboards. "I've only been working alongside Auto all day long, installing some brand new teleporter security protocols - all to keep you pesky good guys out. I let you in to get what I need to find Mega Man X, but you won't be getting out again." Here her frown turned over and ended up being all the more freaky for it. "Plus it'll be plenty easy for Lord Zero to come and fetch me."

Mega Man gasped in horror as the demented girl-bot's disgusting laughs echoed throughout the room. "That's right, Mega buddy. Lord Zero is going to come and tear this place apart bit by bit, not stopping his search until your next generation robot is destroyed! Zero is the true robot! All of you inferior models just get in the way. Did you check out that data that Algorhythm Man showed you? Not one digit of those statistics is a lie! Lord Zero is the greatest robot that ever operated!"

"Please, Crystal, I don't want to fight you!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Please tell me what happened to you!"

"What happened to me? Aw, still so cute and sweet as you're about to die, aren't you? Nothing happened. I'm simply liberated from all the rules of you pathetic do-gooders and the stupidity of...ugh...'Forte-kun'! I'll kill him soon. For now, it'll be you!"

"I see how it is..." Mega Man said with genuine sadness. "I'm sorry, Crystal Bot."

Rock immediately snapped his foot up, kicking at a pail of blue paint. The precise kick sent the paint at the exact right angle to splatter all over Crystal Bot's face. The pail itself smacked her as well, and Crystal Bot almost roared as she drew an arm across her eyes. She wiped them off right in time to see the fully charged buster shot careening toward her.

"Gaaah!"

Crystal Bot smacked backwards into the way, more angry than ever. Before Mega Man could fire off more plasma at her she jumped into the air, casting her crystal eye. It bounced around the room, and one impacted into Mega Man's armor and sent him to the floor. Worse yet, this distraction brought Crystal Bot even closer. Her energy crystal was in hand, ready to shock him. She smacked him across the face with it, ending his attempt to rise from the rubble.

Then she stopped, one foot on Mega Man's chest and the energy crystal's point touching him right between the eyes. Latent energy started to form around it, and it pulsed with a growing electrical light - and pain. Mega Man's ultra armor could only resist so much before his systems started wavering and losing control. And the energy spike was only getting more powerful.

_I can't use the epic win on her without killing me, so here goes!_

Switching off the ultra armor (and subsequently being punished by an even worse wave of pain), Mega Man equipped the power bullet and fired it off. Immediately the spike energy stopped, and Mega Man was able to swing around and kick Crystal Bot's legs out from under her. He snatched the crystal from her hands and tossed it away, aiming his buster at her face.

"Stand down!" he ordered.

Crystal Bot refused. She in turn tried to kick out his legs, but the attempt was pathetic. The Toad Man disease was starting to take hold, and Crystal Bot's battle A.I. began to fail her, and it wasn't even very good in the first place. That didn't stop Crystal Bot from trying as hard as she could to continue the fight, but the best she could do was get up. Every punch was blocked or dodged, and every kick was meaningless. She was fighting Mega Man, after all. Yet no matter how many times he blocked her attacks or fired his buster at her, she didn't give up. With increasing fury she just kept on going, even though her strength was readily decreasing, and her armor just couldn't withstand the onslaught. Her left elbow was jammed, stuck at an angle that did her no good for offense or defense. And yet she still kept hitting away, for all the good it did.

"Why can't I _kill_ you?" she shrieked.

The question was never answered. With one more strike of the fully charged buster, Crystal Bot collapsed into the piles of now junk, laying still. Mega Man took in a deep breath, lowering his smoking buster. He sagged a bit, running a hand over his face. This kind of security breach totally caught him off guard. Crystal Bot was a trusted technician, and that meant she had access...

_" - Auto! - "_ Mega Man sent a hasty transmission. _" - Drop what you're doing immediately and check on everything Crystal Bot did to our security systems! - "_

_" - I'm way ahead of you, Rock! - " _Auto replied. _" - I managed to get your transmission earlier and I've been working on it since then. That's the good news. The bad news is...well, I've got a lot of work to do. I think she's been corrupted for a long period of time. Basically everything I let her work on is malfunctioning. - "_

_" - Reset the security codes for teleportation. - " _Rock said. _" - She said something about a 'Lord Zero', and I'm sure she intended to send the codes to him. I can only hope she already hasn't...oh no! Roll! - "_

Mega Man immediately cut off the teleportation. How many rooms had Crystal Bot torn up since she was here, and was one of them his sister's? Mega Man immediately went for the door, pulling the shelving unit out of the way as if it were no more than a stick. He began to run down the halls, and with horror he found that each new door he opened was filled with the wrecked contents of whatever used to be inside. Two more storage rooms were trashed, as was the lounge.

_Roll's room is next..._ he worried, starting to get frantic. _Please no, not her..._

Mega Man opened his sister's door with horror. This room outdid all the others. For the other rooms, Crystal Bot seemed content to tear up whatever loose items where there. Here, she had punched through every wall, and thrown a dresser clear through the left one. Through the mirror as well, as the shards of glittering glass proved. The bed was now no longer recognisable, other than one of the metal supports being half-jammed into the right wall. Everything from Roll's closet was torn to bits. The shredded red cloth scattered everywhere gave the room an eerie sense of spilled blood.

"Roll...please not Roll!"

From the way the room was torn up, Mega Man feared that he would find his sister in the same state. He dug through the rubble, hoping desperately that his fear was wrong. He was so afraid that he could hardly look.

"Rock, what's going on?"

The fearful voice snapped Mega Man out of it, and he his wide eyes stared out the door. There was Roll, staring at her room with all the horror she possessed. She clutched at her purse in revulsion, thinking of all the lovely dresses she owned that were now all ruined. There wasn't much time to mourn the loss. Mega Man practically teleported to her, grabbing her arm as if to make sure she was real.

"Please tell me you're okay!"

"I'm fine. I just went out for a walk..." Roll glanced at her room. "I didn't want to tell you because I thought you would say no."

"I would've." Mega Man hugged her tightly, shaking. "Good job."

Mega Man's frantic hugging was actually doing a better job scaring Roll than seeing her room torn up. She held him a moment to make him feel better, but after that she just had to pull away. It was starting to freak her out.

"Tell me what happened." she asked. "Who did this?"

"It was Crystal Bot. She's got some sort of virus, and she's been messing with our security protocols, as well as tearing up the lab." Mega Man sighed and looked further on down the hall. "I haven't searched the whole lab yet, but I took Crystal Bot out of commission."

"I...I'll try to clean things up." Roll offered. "Don't worry about it."

"I'd like you to come with me to the lab first. I want you to stay by me until we know that the anti-enemy teleportation field is back online and with secure encryptment."

Roll nodded, affording herself one last glance into her room with a heavy sigh. As silly as it was, she was more annoyed than scared. These were her clothes! As long as she was safe Roll felt that she could worry about her possessions. So that's what she did as she followed her worried brother, matching his sharp pace as they went over to the main lab.

"Ah, Rock, it's worse than I imagined!" Auto exclaimed as he heard the door open. He could barely turn away from the screen long enough to see who entered. "Crystal Bot set a lock on the anti-teleport coding! I can't switch the numbers! If Zero finds out the right teleport sequence, he can teleport in! I can fix this, but it's going to be a few minutes."

Mega Man nodded, firmly biting his lip. In a world of fighter-bots, each minute was an eternity. He rushed right over beside Auto and started typing away at the computer. He checked the computer for any transmission emerging from the house in the past half-hour. Much to his horror, a transmission was going out, completely unencrypted. It was the teleport codes to get into Light Laboratories.

"Gah! She's still sending the codes!" Mega Man's fingers banged on the keyboard even faster. "Where is that coming from?"

"Rock!" Roll cried out.

The intruder had been hoping that Mega Man would be distracted by his work, but he was the hero of Monstropolis, and Crystal Bot was shiny. Not even Roll was fooled by the would-be attacker sneaking up on her. However, the evilly grinning tech-bot was still only a few feet behind Roll, swinging her pink energy crystal with threat. It was clear to all the robots that the transmission was coming directly from her.

"Still so gullible, aren't you, Mega?" She grinned all the more, then let her eyes wander to Roll. "So, who's faster? You or me? Little Roll isn't immune to death spikes either."

"But we are!"

Out of nowhere Wood Man showed up. On instinct Crystal Bot lit up her death spike energy, but Wood Man was a fellow Wily-bot and he simply charged and knocked the crystal out of her hand. Gemini Man jumped out from behind Wood Man at the same time and jumped on the other side of Crystal Bot. Both robots snatched up her arms, allowing Ice Man to emerge and try to shut Crystal Bot down.

She kicked his leg. "Stay away from me! What's wrong with you? We serve Wily!"

"Shaddup!" Wood Man hissed. "Hurry up and get her, Icey." 

"Then keep her still already!" the Team 1 robot hissed back. "Sheesh..."

Gemini and Wood Man shoved Crystal Bot downwards to keep her from having room to kick. Ice Man flipped her switch at the neck, and that ended Crystal Bot's struggles. She slumped down, and the two Wily-bots beside her hauled her over to the nearest repair table and started strapping her in.

"Ah, good, that cut off the transmission. If we're lucky, Zero won't hear it in time." Auto kept up his work, and the keystrokes continued sounding even as he spoke. "In just five minutes more we'll be safe!"

"In the meantime, you can figure out what's wrong with her." Ice Man waved Rock over. "Come and see. Wily's robots are able to go in a safe mode where they're not activated, but they're not fully shut down either. You should be able to examine the virus in this mode."

"Great! Thanks! But, uh," Mega Man looked up at the three Wily-bots. "So why are you guys helping?"

"Auto showed us what happened at the secret lab." Wood Man growled. "Poor Elec Man...Nitro Man was a great fighter too! They were our friends and loyal to Wily! What did they get? Destroyed! Wily was the only one who programmed Zero...he did this! So I'm not going to the robot museum for _his_ sake."

"Yeah!" Gemini Man chimed in. "They're just going to have to wait before they get my handsome faces trapped in that old museum! You're witness! Wily betrayed us first!"

"Wonderful!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Have your powers been restored yet?"

"No." Gemini Man almost whimpered, folding his arms and having the most dignified pout you'd ever see. "I haven't seen my wonderful clone for almost a day! My poor baby!"

"All of us downstairs take your deal, Mega." Wood Man said, still looking at the blue bomber with suspicious eyes. "You said we had a day and it's only been fifteen hours."

"I'm not going back on my word." Rock promised. "Ice Man, hurry and get the others. I'll de-install the power repressing software in your heads here. It won't take long. Though I'm afraid we don't have much time before something happens..."

-t-

Bass had been through Monstropolis three times already. The first time he tried to avoid Team 6, but since none of the other places he searched held any sign of Zero, for the second round Bass ignored them and looked absolutely everywhere. And then for good measure he looked again. For the moment he and Treble were now atop Kauffman Tower, trying to figure out where to go next. As much as everyone claimed Zero was somewhere in Monstropolis, the dark robot was running out of patience.

"He's a super destructive robot out to kill everyone and yet we haven't seen any sign of him?" Bass growled. "What the hell is that?"

To be fair, there had been one sign: Crystal Bot. Bass swore. Only a moment ago Auto had sent him a message that Crystal Bot was on the fritz. He mentioned something about a virus, but since he was frantically trying to undo the damage the tech-bot did to the computers in the lab, Auto didn't clarify. Bass knew what this could mean. He gritted his fangs, angry. Why in the world did Crystal Bot have to listen to Wily and go to the secret lab in the first place?

"Treble, I swear I'm going to do something about that girl, even if I have to reprogram her." he hissed at his likewise annoyed wolf. "She keeps getting herself into these situations!"

_" - Beep-beep-beep. Beep. Beep. Beep-beep... - "_

"Huh, what?" Bass turned around, glaring behind himself but seeing nothing but an empty rooftop and the elevator that led down into the businesses of Kauffman Tower. "That transmission isn't coming from far away."

Wherever it was coming from, it wasn't the top of Kauffman Tower. Bass lifted his ready buster and walked around the large roof, but there weren't any places for a robot to hide. He himself would be fairly obvious to anyone looking up. As he walked, he listened to the strange beeping wavelength, and the more he listened, the more his eyebrows pursed together.

"Morse code? Who uses that these days?"

Bass attempted to clarify the Morse code in his head, but an even worse transmission permeated the air, obvious in its lack of encryption. Bass already knew the security codes to Light Laboratories, and it shocked him to hear that this was coming through all the regular radio channels, clear as day.

"What the hell?" Bass snarled. "Oh crap, we've gotta find Zero!"

The dark robot immediately turned northwest, the direction of the laboratory. He immediately choked. There behind him was another robot. He crouched on the edge of the roof, himself looking over his shoulder in the general direction of the lab. A nasty grin grew on his face as this robot, none other than Zero, slowly turned his head toward Bass, his evil eye gleaming with violence. Zero's left hand extended, and out came a green saber, extended from the plasma hilt Zero held in his hand.

"Treble!" Bass hissed. "Warn me when someone's on my back..."

Forte wasn't that upset. He matched Zero's grin, showing his fangs. This was the fight he was looking forward to. He'd been anticipating it for months, ever since he left his creator. Best of all, Zero was right here, activated, and apparently more interested in fighting Bass than getting to the labs. This fact barely registered to Bass, who of assumed Zero was as eager to fight him as vice versa.

The assumption was correct. Zero stepped down from his hunched position on the edge of the tower, standing to his full height. He was at least two feet taller than Bass, but this didn't affect the dark robot. He fought plenty of robots greater in size, daunted by none of them. Already Bass was formulating strategies in his mind. He didn't know how high Zero could jump, but the wingless robot surely couldn't fly. Bass didn't detect any gravity alternators.

"Treble!" Bass called out again. "We've got to merge!"

No response. Not so much as the sound of one of Treble's claws scratching against the roof. Zero started walking closer, slowly as if to taunt him, and Bass took a few steps back.

"Treble!" he snarled. "Hurry it up already!"

Nothing. Zero was getting too close for comfort, and that meant there wouldn't be any time to merge anyway. Bass just growled (what was wrong with all of his assistants today?) and activated his double busters.

"Eat plasma, little Sis!"

The air filled with volleys of Bass' plasma, clouding his view of his enemy with their bright flares. Bass grinned. There was no way in the world Zero would be able to dodge these. Of course, dodging wasn't exactly what Zero had in mind. Before Bass could see what was going on, two _vrrnnn vrrrnnns_ sounded, and suddenly all of the plasma was heading the other direction.

"What?" a stunned Bass was quick to double jump over the flying plasma. "You can't do that!"

Apparently he could. Bass tried not to let this distract him too long, and as he jumped in the air he started planning how he was going to land and make Zero suffer for his insolent self-defense. But as he looked over to his enemy, he found himself face to face with Zero.

_I should have known he could double-jump too!_

Too late. A flash of green, and Zero slashed Bass in the chest. Bass collapsed, hitting the roof with a thud as he landed on his side. His head smacked into something metal. It was Treble. From where Bass landed it was easy to see his wolf's fate. Treble lay on his paws, his doggy eyes wide open - and his cranium the same. The hole in Treble's head still smoked from where Zero's sword plunged into his CPU.

"Treble!" Bass cried out. Only a moment later the despair in his face turned to hate. "Oh, that's it! You're gonna die!"

Bass barely had time to say this before Zero returned, ready to make his fate the same as his dog's. Bass was quick enough to roll under Zero's legs, then once he was clear turn and fire off a new volley at Zero's back. It didn't do too much besides getting carbon stains on Zero's armor. Instead of trying to get away, Zero flipped around, snarling as his saber blocked further shots and sent them right back at their source. How dare this fin-headed robot resist his fate! Zero dashed forward and kicked Bass smack in the chest, hitting Bass in the area already damaged by Zero's saber. Bass' armor bent inward, starting to crush vital systems. Forte barely managed to keep to his feet. The green slash of doom flicked twice more, literally de-arming Forte.

What happened next, Bass never really knew. All he saw was that green flash and the horrible, hateful grin of Dr. Wily's masterpiece. Then the world cut off like television set, instantly black and its images gone. The chunks of Bass collapsed to the ground with three thuds, and the green swirl of the rushing saber slashed around one more time, slashing down to reduce Bass' remains to nothing.

"Leave him alone!"

It was the first time in Zero's short life that he heard that voice, but he knew who it was. He knew that voice above all others, and as the cry sounded out behind him, Zero snapped around, saber in hand to face his greatest enemy: Mega Man, the blue bomber, the invincible robot. The swirling pulse of a fully charged buster shot greeted Zero with a smack in the chest, making him fall back and trip over one of Bass' legs.

Zero was up only seconds later, swinging his saber at the pellets Mega Man fired at him. He charged at the bomber, who desperately fired back as quickly as he could. Zero dashed, closing in on Mega Man with every piece of his will intent on slicing the hero in half. Only he'd misjudged the bomber. Mega Man rolled under Zero's swinging arm and ran for Bass' remains. Dub the spider-bot was already there, holding Bass' arms and legs in his limbs. Mega Man grabbed Bass' torso.

"Go, Dub, go!" Mega Man cried out.

Both robots teleported away before Wily's masterpiece could do anything about it. The blue and green teleport beams streaked up into the air, disappearing from the tower. Zero's eyes widened. Angrily he activated his teleporter, trying to get to Light Laboratories. His teleportation circuits cried out with a squeal: Auto had had enough time to get the lab's security shields back up.

Zero's lips pulled apart in a painful scowl. A cold cry from him echoed in the air. It was only at that moment that Zero found himself surrounded by Heat, Wood, Spark, and Magnet Man, each with their weapon pointed at him, shivering at Zero's terrifying howl.

"Steady!" Wood Man pounded on his chest. "Attack! Don't let him get out of here alive!"

But for the first time ever, Wood Man wasn't so sure of himself, and he found himself wondering how a wooden robot could possibly complete with a sword-robot (and wished he'd been doing so much sooner). Wood Man didn't have long to contemplate this. Zero closed in.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Lol, poor Bass. Got pwned by your little 'sis'. I've actually been looking forward to writing this moment. Mwahahaha!

- I've said this before, but I'll just go ahead and remind you that a robot's teleportation abilities are only able to bear a little more mass than the actual robot themselves. It's very difficult to teleport from one place to another and it takes a good deal of power that has to take time to recharge. This is why (1) a robot can't teleport too often in battle and use that as a strategy and (2) a robot cannot teleport another robot with them. A robot can teleport something smaller, like maybe a gun or a robot arm or something like that (assuming it's nonliving), but an attempt to go beyond the teleportation limits results in desyncing and cancellation of the teleport. Therefore Mega Man can't teleport Bass' remains to the lab by himself. Dub is a smaller robot and thus better able to teleport. Crystal Bot is working on improving teleporters to carry more mass. She did succeed at this during the alternate timeline, as I wrote in WGT, but has not at this point completed that technology.

- So what dictates immunity to death spikes, you ask? Well, Dr. Wily had ways of making his robots invulnerable to the spikes, mainly by making them run on the same level of energy. Unfortunately, this means that his robots aren't as powerful as a result. Also unfortunately (for him), Wily didn't realize until several of his teams had been built that this was a strong reason why Mega Man could beat them. Mega was just too strong a robot for death spikes to have no result on him. Some of Wily's later robots are vulnerable to death spikes, however, and later on both Elec Man, Shadow Man, and some other robots Wily liked were increased in power until they were at risk. Teams 8 and 10 were built vulnerable to the spikes automatically. 9 was also vulnerable, but that's mainly because Dr. Light was never quite sure what makes robots not vulnerable - it's more complicated than simple lack of power.

...Okay, fine, it's because death spikes never bothered the robot masters in the games.

Death spikes can be powered by any source. Because of his technician's specialty, Bass has built-in spike protection against energy crystal death spikes. The crystals in his arms absorb most of the energy, and if Bass hits a crystal spike, he'll take some damage, but also fill his double-buster weapon energy to completely full. Notedly, the less power that's in his double busters the more damage they'll absorb. If I was making this into a game, this would totally go into the gameplay. Why can't I program...?

Character profiles!

=====Evil Zero

**"Heh."**

Good point: powerful

Bad point: he's friggin' evil! What more do you want?

Likes: destruction

Dislikes: mercy

We get to see hints of what Zero would be like evil at two points in the X series: the cutscene in X4 where Sigma explains where he came from, and the alternate Sigma Castle 1 in X5 that shows Zero becoming evil and explaining this to X. The X5 scene I consider a little less relevant to my portrayal here, as that Zero was worked on by the X series Dr. Cain and given more emotions. That Zero also has a deep friendship with X. Neither things have happened here, so I'm sticking more by the X4 scene, where we get to see Zero in his most original form: totally powerful, and totally Wily. Notice that evil Zero is more powerful than good Zero, namely because as an evil robot he's accessing the powers his evil creator gave him. Because of his kindness, good Zero refuses to go to that point and sacrifice his sanity for power.

Evil Zero isn't a talkative guy. He was not programmed the same as many other robots. He doesn't have any need for friendship, and he's happiest when he's destroying things. He doesn't necessarily enjoy death itself or explosions themselves, or even the experience of having a fun challenger. He just takes joy in turning things to rubble. There's nothing artistic or emotional about it. It's a lot similar to a child's need to crash into some blocks and make them fall down even though another child spent the last ten minutes trying to make it look like a castle.

In his earliest form, Zero was an upgrade for Bass. After the events of MM7, Wily planned to upgrade Bass with powerful weaponry, and this included a plasma sword. The evil energy crashing into his island interrupted his plans, so he ended up trying one more time to take over the world. Bass failed to kill Mega Man during that time, and so afterwards Dr. Wily was more bitter about his dark creation. He still tried to upgrade Bass, but he kept having "good" ideas of how to make Bass more powerful and yet more submissive. Eventually he figured it was a better idea to just scrap Bass and go for an even better robot.

King was the first result of this idea. The trouble was, during this time robots were very two-dimensional. They could either be intelligent and have a mind of their own, or they could be submissive. Hence Bass' rebellion and King's conspiracy. Wily was having a very hard time trying to make a robot that was both smart but not a smart alec; someone that he could bend to his shallow will without incurring a loss of intelligence. In this sense Zero is a technological breakthrough. He's able to think about complex strategies but he's not capable of reasoning out why in the world he likes destruction so much. He has great capacity for battles, but no capacity for morality, planning for the future, or any form of constructive activity.

Dr. Wily mused to himself that the problem with Bass was his basis on Mega Man's designs. As powerful as Mega Man is, he was always designed to be a lab-bot. His heroism only came from circumstance. Proto Man, on the other hand, was originally designed to fight and keep the peace so that large-scale wars would never happen (this is also the main subconscious reason why Proto Man despises upgrades - he's afraid he'll get too powerful and do something bad to the world). Thus Zero became to be based loosely on Proto Man. Zero's name comes from Proto Man's serial number DRN-000, as well as the idea that Wily is wiping the record clean and starting from zero: not only would none of his goofy Wily-numbers exist and prove that Wily was a crackpot, but all of the robots in the world would be destroyed, leaving Zero as the new prototype for all future robots. A neo-Proto Man, if you will.

So yeah, evil Zero doesn't have much personality. He just likes destroyin' stuff. He is generally always in a mood of moderate happiness that is heightened only by fighting, and he has no serious dislikes - not even Light-bots irk him. The only thing that gets him down is a weapon failure or an enemy escaping. I put "mercy" because it's something completely out of evil Zero's character that he hates the very thought of letting an enemy get away.

Only his like and dislike get any extreme reactions out of Zero. He lacks certain hardware for a normal set of emotional A.I., and what he does have is strictly dampened by Dr. Wily's programmed in failsafes. Wily impaired his emotion, and the only thing Zero is can do to be happy is destroy things. He literally cannot experience happiness, or much of anything else, outside of this. Destroying X, Mega Man, and Bass result in the strongest bursts of happiness inside Zero. As you might assume, yes, Burner Man's A.I. did serve as an emotional basis to a certain extent.

This is more of a side note, but some people have brought to my attention that Zero was supposed to have taken Sigma's saber at the end of X1, and wasn't built to have one. I disagree with this, mainly because I like the saber and I wanted it to be around in my storyline. My canon is that Zero _was_ given a saber by Wily, as confirmed by a certain Bass ending in Mega Man: The Power Fighters. This sword went with Zero into the future, but it was broken by one of the Maverick Hunters that fought Zero before he could be brought down by Sigma. He took Sigma's sword later on because it was stronger. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. Huh. If you recall the Zero origin cutscene in X4, you notice that Sigma doesn't have his saber. Did he get one later?


	22. The Nightmare Zero

Knight Man shuddered. The shrieking wails of Magnet Man were clear to all of Team 6 - well, actually, to all of Monstropolis radios with decent frequency decrypters and a desire to hear macabre happenings.

_" - It's not working! - " _Magnet Man screamed into the radio waves. _" - My magnets aren't working at all! He's killed the others! I'm the only one left! Someone- - "_

The transmission cut off with a snap. The others didn't wonder what happened to him. Even from Team 6's position blocks away, they could all hear the explosion. A plume of smoke appeared in the distance, filling all who saw it with a sense of sick dread.

"Uh, guys?" Wind Man shivered. "Kauffman Tower doesn't have any explosives on it. How did he blow it up like that?"

"Quick!" Knight Man ordered his team, waving his mace through the air. "We've got to keep him in the city!"

"Did someone call me?" Quick Man leaped onto the street beside Wind Man, causing the latter to jump.

"Don't make jokes!" Yamato Man growled as he readied his spear tips. "The army isn't in place yet, and we have to make sure Zero is contained!"

"Hey, don't boss me!" Quick Man said, pointing. "It's not like you need to. Here he comes."

Quick Man didn't need to clarify. They had all seen the pictures of Zero, and they knew that the tall, golden blonde robot jumping towards them was their intended enemy. Or...he wasn't going after them? Zero slashed angrily at everything he could: every lamppost, car, or cute shop logo that stared at him from its place on a shop's storefront. Quick Man winced as he saw Zero, and his normal confidence shook with the slightest of waverings.

"Okay, you guys, we need to think this out." Quick Man hoped he could speak fast enough before Zero saw them. "Don't rush in. We have to all crowd him at once or we'll all die. Blade and Slash are hidden in side alleys, and they'll come in once he sees you. I've got Gemini, Signal, Grenade, Flash, and Ice Man stationed in the buildings around us."

"Huh? _You're _telling us not to rush?" Blizzard Man exclaimed. "How do you know all this?"

"I fought one of his earlier versions. Be glad you weren't there." Quick Man replied, not taking his eyes away from Zero. "I've done my best to discover a way to defeat him, but now I'm out of time. We'll just have to hope this works. Crap, he saw us. I hope you guys are ready for a fight."

Crap was right. The instant Zero saw them, he paused only long enough to put a scowl on his face and dash in. Yamato Man ordered his team to stay - Quick Man's planning sounded as if it could work, especially with the support coming in from the buildings around them. Knight Man noted with some dismay that Quick Man had disappeared. He said nothing about it, only barking orders for his team to get into place.

"Centaur Man!" he called out. "Now!"

The horse-bot stomped his front hooves on the ground, and at once the air flashed with energy. This flashing rushed at Zero, quicker than the eye could see. Nothing much happened. Zero still charged, heading straight for Knight Man with his saber poised to strike.

"Guh!" Centaur Man tried it twice more. "The centaur flash - it's not working!"

Knight Man didn't respond. He jumped out of the way of Zero's downward slash, only for the backslash to hit him in the chest. Centaur Man galloped to his aid, hoping his hooves could prove more useful than his main weapon. Blizzard Man joined in the fray, going into spinning ball form and flinging himself at Zero. This proved futile. One swipe of Zero's sword bounced Blizz in the other direction, smacking the Canada-bot right into Tomahawk Man. Centaur Man's frantic kicking and stomping were frustrating to Zero, but not nearly frustrating enough.

As hooves started hitting the ground, Yamato Man hesitated. He could now attack Zero from behind, but...he had been a cheating, backstabbing robot for so long, and now this was his first chance to fight honorably for once. He no longer wanted his Wily-bot legacy. Yamato considered for a moment that this was not the time for moral uncertainty, but Zero spun around, assuming the choice for him: a level fight. This pleased Yamato Man well enough; his spear tips shot out and flooded the air. Even better, they proved too narrow for the blonde robot to knock back at him.

So instead of hitting them back, Zero simply absorbed the damage and hacked off Yamato Man's head.

"Idiots!" Quick Man screamed from somewhere no one could see. "Why aren't you attacking? Don't worry about collateral, just kill him!"

As annoyed as the remnants of Team 6 might have been at this, they were soon glad that the robots around them began to fire. The ice slasher sent deadly blades of ice down from the roof of a bank, Grenade Man fired his grenades from a department store, and from the next window over Flash Man fired his regular plasma - he didn't bother trying the flash stopper. Signal Man and Gemini Men were all across the street, hanging out atop the antique shop and the cupcake bakery beside it. The gemini lasers proved to be a hazard to enemy and ally alike, but everyone cheered when Signal Man's yellow light attack, the slowdown shot, fired three times and hit Zero twice.

Blade Man and Slash Man jumped in, ready to put an end to the red menace once and for all. Without his speed, how was Zero supposed to fight? Slash Man laughed mightily, thinking of how lovely it would be to defeat the most fearsome enemy ever built. Still, even with Zero covered in the slowdown substance, Plant Man's vines and Tomahawk's tomahawks were only just barely keeping Zero in place.

But even as Blade Man and his overeager melee companion reached Zero, the latter teleported out. Zero was gone, and for a sick moment everyone could only wonder where he went. Signal Man's remains crashed through the antique shop window, along with a 96 year old chest of drawers. Both shattered when they hit the pavement.

"My face!" Gemini Man screamed. "How dare you!"

Ice Man and the robots on his side of the street fired into the cupcake bakery to no avail. The red teleport beam leaving it clearly was not Gemini Man's. Quick Man reappeared on the street, screaming his head off.

"Into the shop, all of you!" Quick Man shrieked. "He'll be after Grenade and them next!"

It was the most logical presumption. Blade and Slash Man followed him into the mall without question. Tomahawk prepared to follow.

"Tommy," Plant Man gasped. "I can't..."

Tomahawk turned to find that Plant Man could barely walk. His left hand was gone, and smoke was coming out of his legs. Plant Man's petals were turning a sickening, dead brown, and it was all he could do to settle on the pavement.

Tomahawk Man nodded, slapping Plant Man on the shoulder before running off to join the others. It didn't take the Native American robot long to catch up with them, and also with the carnage. It was too late for Flash Man, and already his shiny bits lay strewn all over the floor. Tomahawk tried not to trip over a piece of his body (and he didn't try to guess what part it was).

"W-wow, that feels wonderful!" Grenade Man exclaimed as he noticed the glowing red saber going through his chest. "Thanks a bunch, Zer-"

Zero's punch left a crater in Grenade Man's face and knocked him back through two racks of delicate crystalware. The home appliances department was already in a sorry state, with bedsheets and blenders shredded and scattered in every direction, and the last standing rack of fancy summer dishes was shattered as Zero swung his sword through it to get to Ice Man. The Team 1 robot was scared out of his mind, but still very smart. He hid behind whatever still stood as he fired his icy shots at Wily's masterpiece. For his part, Zero had no problem slashing through the cupboards, the pillars, and the bed displays, all in pursuit of the icy robot. Tomahawk Man started firing his feathers, and Slash Man jumped in from time to time to slash at Zero and disappear.

Needless to say, Slash Man didn't last long. Thankfully for the few survivors, it was long enough for one more robot to come into position. Six wedges of the most boring shade of brick red flew in, dripping with electronic energy. Tomahawk and Ice Man got the idea, and Quick Man joined them as all three attacked Zero with a barrage of weapons, all three of which couldn't be knocked back. The six wedges of Echelon Man flew into place, ready to put the echelon heatshock into action.

No one was ever really sure what happened next. Certainly not Ice Man, who slumped to the floor before he even knew the saber had passed through his head. Tomahawk Man was bowled over and stabbed three times in the chest, and with his fading vision he saw the destruction of five Echelon Man wedges. The sixth wedge smacked right into Quick Man, zapping him with the remnant of its power. Once the that last shock was used up, it fell useless to the ground. There wasn't enough left to bring back Echelon Man.

"Aha!" Quick Man cried.

He truly was his namesake. The daring robot dashed directly by Zero, and though it cost him his right arm, Quick Man was indeed quick enough to snatch up the Z saber and roll out of the way. Quick Man gleefully brandished his prize.

"I've been watching your fighting style." Quick Man said. "I know your moves. I've prepared for this ever since that day in Wily's basement. Come and defeat me, Zero. if you can!"

Quick Man really was more frightened than he pretended to be, but all the same he was more brave than most. He actually managed to stand his ground with Zero giving him the dirtiest look any Wily-bot had seen. It reminded Quick Man way too much of Dr. Wily himself. The Team 2 robot expected Zero to attack, but the angry blonde didn't. Instead Zero looked around the floor. With a nasty smirk Zero reached down into the wreckage and pulled out the remains of Blade Man. He ripped off Blade Man's head, holding the face as a hilt.

Quick Man didn't wait any longer. He shot out three boomerangs and flipped through the air, driving the point of the saber directly at Zero.

_Thunk._

Off felt Quick Man's other arm. Zero kicked him to the ground, there amongst the what was left of the microwaves. He shoved Blade Man's razor sharp head into Quick Man's chest. Picking his rightful sword up from the floor, Zero nodded to himself and went back to his prey. He wanted to savor this moment.

Mega Man twitched involuntarily. His wide eyes looked on in helpless innocence as he watched Zero destroy Quick Man. All the thoughts he ever had about how annoying it was to fight the Team 2 robot disappeared out of his mind. All he could think of was how terrible the death was, and if Quick Man had proven difficult for him those years ago, then Zero...

The bomber tried to ignore his sister's worried looks. He had enough nagging at him as it was. It was the worst thing in the world for him to be back in his home lab, sitting there at a computer and staring at the sattelite feed of Zero destroying the city he cared for, and the robots to whom he had promised freedom. Mega Man was careful to watch this on the smaller monitor, so as not to upset his sister. Her worried eyes nonetheless went that way, and Mega Man didn't always notice that they usually stared at him rather than the violence before him. Rock wished she would leave the room, but she had the very legitimate excuse that between Rock's adventures and Auto's tinkering, she never got any cleaning done in there.

"I don't understand it!" Mega Man pounded his fist into the console. "I need to get out there and fight!"

"No, you don't!" Roll immediately scolded him. "You remember what Reyes said! The REA is willing to let Wily-bots be cannon fodder, but you've earned your right to stay out of this one. All they need is for the robots to hold Zero in place until the army can get into position. They don't need you for that!"

Mega Man frowned, looking very much like an angry, angsty teenager. He'd heard all of this before, and didn't appreciate hearing it again. As much as the logical parts of his CPU told him that he should be grateful and accept the fact that he wouldn't be the defender of Monstropolis too much longer if he did have to face down Zero, it just felt so wrong to do so. Normally Rock was never dramatic or ever glorified death, yet it felt more right that he should at least die for Monstropolis, rather than hole up in his lab and hope for the best.

"The entire point of my becoming a fighter was to stop pointless death." Mega Man told her. "This is my city!"

"Yeah, well a pointless death is still pointless if it's you." Roll insisted. "Just obey the order, okay? You're not being a coward, you're just doing what you're told."

Mega Man huffed and went back to the monitor. Roll wanted to make him promise he wouldn't teleport out of the lab, but she got the hint. She didn't want to argue with her brother anyway. He was grateful for that, and set his focus back on the satellite feed. And grimaced. Zero was outside of the department store again, and he'd found Plant Man laying on the street. Mega Man gasped. If Plant Man was still activated and sitting there, it could only mean that his teleportation wasn't working. He couldn't come back to the lab. And now that Zero stood before him, it was too late for Mega Man to rescue him. Mega Man, horrified, could do nothing more than watch.

"Ugh..." the Team 6 robot groaned. "Crap...poor Tomahawk...not you too..."

Zero approached Plant Man as the latter lay there in the rubble of his team. Plant Man looked up with solemn eyes. He wasn't worried; it wasn't as if he was a threat to Zero. His eyes went downward and closed. After a moment, they opened again. Why was Zero just standing there? Didn't he have something better to do? Plant Man blinked. Zero, though now completely unmoving, was five feet closer. And he was grinning.

"Um...crap...uh...hello?" Plant Man sputtered. "So, um, how are you...doing? You don't have to, um, kill me, you know. I serve Wily too. All that good stuff. Yeah?"

Zero grinned. Plant Man tried not to shake. Here he was, helpless before an enemy well beyond his power - hello? There was a blue thing swirling in the air behind Zero. Plant Man didn't dare smile, though he wanted to. The blue thing headed right for Zero's head, and Plant knew a dive bomb when he saw it.

_I have to keep him distracted!_ Plant Man summoned words out of his mouth and hoped they sounded convincing enough. "So Zero, I know where Dr. Wily is being kept, so why don't we go and fetch him so that he can see you take over the world? Don't you know that Master Wily would just love that? So how about it?"

Zero grinned. And said nothing. Only his sword arm moved. It flicked up behind him, slicing through the dive bomb. It burst, but only a little, harmless to the red robot.

"Yarrgh! Ye call that _tryin'_, Landlubber?" Pirate Man snarled. "Allow a master to work!"

Zero turne around, expecting to Pirate Man. Only the robot before him was no pirate at all, and had even fewer subtleties. He did, however, have a lot of propane tanks.

"Hey there, Zero buddy. Do you like PLAYING WITH FIRE?"

Burner Man lit up as he screamed, surrounding himself with a flaming orb. This was dangerous to do, but Burner Man did it nonetheless. He wanted his shell as hot as possible so that the slightest touch would burn Zero. Zero, however, jumped clear over Burner Man, with not so much as one of the hairs on his head getting singed. He landed, ready to rip apart the Team 8 fire robot. This didn't quite work. A more than daring Pirate Man caught Zero's sword arm in his claw, allowing Burner Man to get in a blast of fire.

"Ha har! This be fer Splash Woman!" Pirate Man cried out. "Sure is a true shame ta burn yer lovely little face, Miss Zero! Har har!"

Pirate Man promptly stuck a bomb on Zero's back, then let him loose for Burner Man to set aflame. Only as Pirate Man tried to hop back, Zero snapped around, grabbed his wrist, and flung him right smack into Burner Man. This move flung the bomb from his back, leaving the cupcake bakery to suffer a blast to the display case (and ruining a nice little display of cupcake cakes shaped like summer fruit). Zero was mad, now. He didn't like getting burned in the face, and only Burner Man's speed saved him. Pirate Man wasn't so lucky, and his ruins joined Team 6's in the street. Burner Man didn't last much longer himself, for that matter. He was used to Mega Man or Bass, both of which struggled in defeating the propane-bot. He wasn't used to robots that could cut through his propane distributor with a single slice.

"NO!" Burner Man screamed. "MY PRECIOUS BURNY STUFF!"

Zero was tired of Burner Man's volume. That did not bode well for the lesser Wily-bot. Soon enough he was down as well, no longer able to mourn his loss of flames. Actually, he probably would have approved of the death. The broken hull of himself lay in a pile, burning itself and melting a crater of tar in the street. Zero admired it, staring at it with a smile.

"Alright, enough of that idiocy!" Zero turned to see that Dive Man was approaching him, though of course he wasn't at all surprised. "I'm here to make sure a _sane_ person is fighting for Splash Woman! Come and fight me, Zero!"

The blond robot wasn't impressed, but all the same, destroying stuff was destroying stuff. Zero grinned at Dive Man, easily slashing through the slow moving dive torpedoes fired at him. Dive Man shrank back, now realizing his weakness. It didn't matter if his dive bombs tracked down Zero. If they weren't fast, they weren't any good. And now he was alone. Plant Man sitting there sure didn't count. All the Team Six robot could do was watch as Dive Man made his pathetic last stand. Plant Man attempted to shoot his petals, but got nothing but a broken squeal.

"Arrgh!" Plant Man groaned and facepalmed. He might as well. The noise of the attempted help got Zero's attention, which Plant Man would really rather wasn't on him. Dive Man wasn't there to distract Zero any longer, and now it was only him and Zero. He scrunched his eyes tightly shut, refusing to watch as Zero approached.

It was at that point that Mega Man stopped watching. He had to stop - he felt so sick! Poor Plant Man...and why was Dive Man even there in the first place? The Cossack-bot hadn't even been briefed about Zero, and Mega Man knew for a fact that Dive Man was much less manueverable outside of water.

_So is Pirate Man, for that matter. _Rock thought. _What is it with water-bots these days?_

Mega Man turned away from the monitor with a sigh. He'd watched it with the hope that he'd figure out some way to stop Zero or lay some sort of trap for him, but watching the satellite feed had only served to make Mega Man feel uneasy. This time he couldn't be so heedlessly idealistic. As much as he loved Monstropolis, he had to know the limits of his own strength. This he did only grudgingly.

"Ugh, Auto," Mega got up from his chair. "What's Bass' condition?"

Auto was in the room, though Roll was still able to clean because only three of the repair tables were occupied. Mega Man shuddered as he passed Crystal Bot's by; her unconscious grimacing and shaking was just too disturbing to look at. He could only guess (but didn't) what the Zero virus was doing to her mind. Mega Man did look at Treble, where most of his head armor had been removed so that the delicate innards underneath could be repaired. A whimpering Rush lay at the foot of that table, tail unmoving and ears downward. As for Bass, while he was back in one piece, that that piece was remarkably dirty and carbon-scored, besides cracked in a few places. Only his chestplate, a spare that Auto found, was clean and intact.

"He's operational, but not in any condition for fighting." Auto patted Bass' bare head. "Aw, he looks almost nice when he's deactivated. Doesn't he though?"

Rock didn't laugh. "Hm. Don't say that when he's awake."

"So should I activate him?" Auto asked. "I don't really know. Crystal Bot would know...but...eh. I don't know if it's such a good idea to wake him up if he can't do any fighting."

Mega Man thought about it for a minute. He had no idea if Bass would be angrier if he were awake to realize he'd been defeated by Zero and both of his assistants were out of commission, or being deactivated while all this was going on. Mega Man's usual sensibilities failed him. He was angry, helpless, and annoyed. Mega Man glanced once more at the monitor showing Zero's mayhem and decided that if he had to be miserable and stuck in the lab, then Bass could be miserable and stuck too.

"Sure, why not?" Rock muttered. "Sooner or later he'll find out what happened. Wake him up."

"You sure?" Auto asked. "He's going to be mad-"

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead." Rock headed back for the monitor. As much as it tortured him, he wanted to keep an eye on Zero. "Then start working on the lab's defenses. We can't guarantee that Zero will be distracted in Monstropolis for long. If we're lucky, the army will have the non-outward teleport field up already."

Auto glanced at Bass, wincing a bit. Roll walked up to Auto, patting him on the arm. Auto nodded, and he went off to work on the lab. As scary as activating Bass was sure to be, Roll rathered that Auto worked at protecting the lab and Mega Man X. She shuddered, hoping that they wouldn't have to activate X. The government was sure to have something to say about an experimental, possibly dangerous robot that was kept secret from them for years.

Roll gently touched Bass' neck, then immediately jumped backwards. This proved prudent.

"You bastard!" Bass screamed, buster in the air as if to shoot. "Come-"

He blinked. This wasn't the top of Kauffman Tower. This was Light Laboratories. Zero was nowhere to be found. Instead the dark robot found himself sitting up on a repair table, with Roll standing a safe distance away. Bass directed his confused glare at her.

"I deactivated your buster." Roll spoke barely above a whisper. "You can switch it back on now...if you want."

Bass froze for a minute, but then just converted his buster back into a hand. He lifted this hand to his ear, listening as his mind told him all the things that were wrong with him. Finally, Bass sighed and rubbed his eyes. Roll thought for a moment that he might be calm, but she was wrong. As soon as Bass' hand left his face, he was glowering at her.

"What happened?" he growled. "What the _hell _happened out there? Did I malfunction or something?"

Roll winced, painfully sympathetic. Her pity was obvious, as was her fear. Her lip trembled, and it seemed that at any moment she would begin crying. But no, the girl-bot stubbornly sniffed, forcing herself to remain under control. Shivering, she simply offered him an E tank.

"You delayed Zero long enough for us to get our anti-teleporters set back up." Roll's whimpering came out in her voice, no matter how solemn she tried to be. "If it weren't for you, Zero would have destroyed the lab by now."

The E tank was still in Roll's extended arm. Bass didn't take it; he didn't even notice it.

"WHAT? What the hell? I've been preparing to fight this guy forever!" Bass angrily started making his way off the repair table. "I've been upgraded more times than I can count and I've been studying anti-sword fighting this whole time! What... oh hell, just show me the playback on the monitoring systems. I'll look for myself."

"It's too late." Mega Man called. "I deleted the file already. You really don't want to see it. Just...just trust me on that."

Mega Man turned back to the screen. He didn't want to see Bass' reaction. What he did want was for Bass to ask in his usual furious and sarcastic manner why Rock himself wasn't out there fighting. If he did, then Mega Man would at least feel assured that his rightful place was out there, battling bad guys just like he always was supposed to. But Bass didn't. Mega Man heard the sound of an E tank opening behind him, and that was all.

"Reyes ordered me to stay away." Mega Man said as Bass approached him. He knew it sounded like he was making excuses, but he didn't want Bass to get false ideas in his head. "They want the other robots to distract Zero until the military can get into place and do something about it."

"Eh. Orders for me?"

"...No."

Bass growled and darkened, but said nothing. They both got quiet as they watched the monitor. The satellite systems were still clearly focused on Monstropolis, and well, the city had never looked worse. The metal plating in front of stores designed to keep robots from crashing into them could repel any normal robot; Zero seemed to take pleasure in slashing up each one. Several restaurants on Harris Street were nothing but metal caves filled of shredded wires, seating, and oil fryers - not that you could hardly identify any of that without careful inspection.

It was hard to keep up with Zero's movements. The satellite had lost him and now only caught his aftermath. From what was left of them, Bass could see the top of Top Man's head, tangled in Spring Man's remains. At least he thought it was Spring Man. It might have just been some really torn up industrial coils. Cut Man's scissors, however, were far to unique not to be noticed: they were stuck in the side of a bank with a bit of jagged orange metal still attached on the back. Wherever the rest of Cut Man's body was, no one knew. It might have been behind Centaur Man's.

"Centaur Man's centaur flash doesn't work on Zero." A despondent Mega Man said. "It flashed, but there was no reaction."

"Of course." Bass spat, letting his angry lip reveal a fang. "Of _course _Wily would make his special little robot invincible to it...is that Solar Man over there?"

Mega Man stared, only growing more grim as he watched. "Yeah..."

Bass lifted an eyebrow, confused by what he saw before him. He bit his lip.

"I...didn't know he could bend that far."

"He can't."

It sounded as if Rock would cry. Bass cringed, hoping that the bomber didn't start. Mega Man didn't cry. He was so mad he could hardly stand himself. Instead of sitting here and grieving, he stood up, kicking away the chair beneath him. He lifted his tight fists, snarling and kicking again at the chair for good measure.

"That's it!" Mega Man said, his voice dark with determination. "I'm going out there. I don't care if it's against orders! I can't let him do this to my city! Zero's doing more damage out there than all of Wily's schemes put together! I'm not going to let others fight and die where I dare not even go!"

"Shut up, Rock." Bass growled. "You can't beat him."

"You shut up!" Rock snapped, getting the attention of the non-fighters in the room. "Haven't I _always_ beaten anybody that ever fought me? How many times have I saved the world? You don't have the right to talk to me like that! Just because you can't defeat Zero doesn't mean I can't!"

Bass snarled with rage, and there might have been a fight right then and there, but Bass knew his status. Instead he did something even worse. Mega Man found himself grabbed by the shoulders and forced to face his little sister, who was interrupted quite pitifully sweeping the floor.

"Look this jerk right in the eye, Roll." Bass forced his words through his gritted teeth. "He wants to go out there and fight Zero. You know what? He _can't_. He'll get his butt killed in thirty seconds. I fought this guy a bajillion times, and so I oughta know by now that if he gets near Zero, he's DEAD. He can't beat Zero, no matter what he does. It's just not possible. He doesn't have what it takes."

His sister's fearfully wide eyes stole all the determination from Mega Man. Roll's knuckles went white as she clutched the broom. Even before she spoke she already poisoned all of her brother's courage.

"Please, Rock, don't go!" she almost wept. "Everyone knows you're brave already. You don't have anything to prove!"

Mega Man dropped his gruff act. He could only fight his denial so long. Bass was right, Reyes was right, Roll was right...everyone except him! For once he wanted to say something and defend his pride. Rock could think of nothing. He could almost feel the fearful gaze of Roll, and well, as much as he was responsible for protecting people, his first duty was to his family.

"Don't worry Roll...I'm not going."

The girl-bot relaxed. She glanced one last time at her brother, as if waiting for him to uncross his fingers or something. But both his hands were in plain view and uncrossed, so she paused, then continued the swishing of the plastic bristles along the tile floor. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do.

Mega Man bitterly pushed his way out of Bass' grip and turned with an accusing finger to his rival. "That was below the belt, Bass."

"Screw you. If you want to beat Zero, you're going to have to be smart."

"Then what do you suggest, oh wise one?"

"Watch your tone." Bass hissed. "Then get to work on our defenses. Soon enough Zero's going to realize that you're not coming and get bored of fighting idiot-bots. And why the hell am I wandering around looking like a piece of junk? I can't help you like this."

Mega Man folded his arms. "That's...not an option right now. Between all the trouble with the shipping, repairing all the Wily-bots, and what your assistant did to my supply rooms, we don't have what it takes to repair you."

"WHAT? Well, a fat lot of good repairing those idiots did!"

"They delayed Zero and now the army made it to Monstropolis." Mega Man shrugged. "They did _something_."

Bass growled again, but didn't say anything. Rock was being stubborn, and there wasn't any point to arguing with him anyway. He had better things to do, like check on his technician, for one. It at least would make him feel a little useful. Mega Man followed him to the repair table. Seeing the poor girl calmed Rock down some, but on the inside he was every bit as grim as his gold and yellow companion.

Crystal Bot had a virus. A stupid virus that left her nothing more than a twitching, convulsing robot lying on a repair table. The worse of it was her horrible visage. It wasn't the face of sweet, peppy, annoying Sonata. It was someone evil. Her open eyes moved in anger, furious that she wasn't activated. Her mouth every so often would pull into a snarl, then fade out, then grimace again. There was nothing left of the innocent girl-bot they knew.

Bass leaned heavily on the side of the table to observe his technician. His face was grim, and any reaction stayed inside him. The dark robot stood there a moment, just watching. After a bit, he glinted back at Rock, speaking with considerably more growl in his voice than was necessary.

"What happened to her?"

"Zero did this." Mega Man explained, his voice too exhausted to have much emotion. "That's what we're able to guess. Before this virus took control of her, Crystal Bot showed us her memories of discovering the secret lab. She only saw Zero for a few seconds, but that was enough for him to transmit it to her. We even scanned her right after everything had happened, but we didn't discover anything. We scanned her again after we managed to get her back under control, and we found out it's a virus meant to infect the parts of her mind based on X's technology. It's a safe assumption that this virus was meant to infect X too. In any case, this virus was probably the only reason Zero let her live: she was a part of his plans. He sure hasn't spared any robot or human since then..."

Rock glanced back at the monitor with a heavy heart. His grief-stricken face looked too like it would fall into weeping at any minute, but for the anger in his eyes. Bass nearly gagged. Everything was going wrong, and if he had to deal with one more mopey robot, he wasn't sure what he would do. Bass just gritted his teeth for now. How was he going to fix this? How could this have happened? He was supposed to be the one to take Zero down, impress the government, and get off his probation early. That was the plan. Everything went completely wrong. He owed his life to Mega Man _again_? Or had one of those Wily-bot idiots pulled him out of the fray? Either way, that alone was the worst thing in the world to Bass, only to be compounded by the loss of his team. Crystal Bot was virus-ridden, Treble was dead, and he himself had been...been...

_DEFEATED!_ The furious robot drove his fist down into the repair table, permanently imprinting it. _I'm gonna kill that girly bastard!_

He couldn't do it. He knew he couldn't. This was the worst day of his life.

"So...do you know how to fix her?"

Bass glared over his shoulder at Rock, but the question was humble enough. He vent his frustrations with only a sigh.

"Not really. She meant to teach me stuff about computers and crap, but I was always too busy in Russia. I know she's got some kind of self-repair functions...eh, it looks like they're not working." Bass grew suddenly thoughtful. "Huh, I guess I have a shot. Morse code..."

Bass reached down, and much to everyone's shock, he activated Crystal Bot. She opened her eyes, and no one was sure that whether she was smiling or snarling. She groaned a little, trying to say something. Bass leaned over her.

"What was that?"

"I said...DIE!"

Crystal Bot's orbs flashed a brilliant swirl of pink and purple, summoning a blue crystal. Forte was still faster than her. He jumped out of the way, then grabbed her and forced her shoulders down on the table. The crystal formed harmlessly in the air in front of Crystal, not inside Bass' chest as she planned. Mega Man prepared to fire his buster, but Bass shouted first.

"Crystal Bot reset! Five, two-nine-one!"

"Erk!" Crystal Bot's voice caught in her throat. "Oh...um, ha! I don't know what you think you're doing, Bass, but Zero will kill you yet-"

"SHADDUP ALREADY!" Bass roared.

And she did. Instantly her voice cut off, and Crystal Bot furiously pouted. She continued to say horrible things, but since she could only mouth them, it was a lot easier for Bass to ignore them. And ignore them he did.

"Alright, that's better." he folded his arms. "Now activate all your self repair functions and get rid of this virus. Turn back into your normal self."

"Arrgh!" she shrieked. "No! How can you do this? I was going to serve a real champion for once! A real-ll chappmionnnn..."

She fell back down on the repair table with a thud. Her violent twitching continued. The evil grimacing got worse, and her hands reached out to grasp and possibly strangle anyone nearby. This, however, was punctuated with interruptions. An innocence returned to Crystal Bot's face from time to time, temporarily breaking the spell the virus had on her. Of course, it wasn't long before the nasty face came back, but it too fell out again, and the cycle continued.

"What was that?" Mega Man lowered his buster in awe. "You can control her?"

"Apparently." Bass was almost as surprised as Rock. "Wow, it actually works. Someone sent me a transmission in Morse code before I fought Zero. I don't know who."

"Wait, Morse code? Nobody uses that anymore." Mega Man puzzled. "And some random person out there knows something about Crystal Bot that we don't know ourselves?"

"You got me." Bass shrugged.

"Forte-kun..." Crystal's weak voice floated up like a faint mist. "Forte..."

Bass neared her again, this time a little more cautious. There was no need. Crystal Bot's face had relaxed away from the violence, leaving behind a scared girl-bot. Her eyes were no longer blank, and she was able to look at Bass directly. The struggle going on in her mind was evident, however, and she trembled.

"Forte..." she could hardly speak above a whisper. "I am the second mind. The first is shut down, and the third...itt'sss it'ss g-gone. T-taken."

"Can it be fixed?"

"I ddunno. I need...need...more antieess virusss." Crystal Bot gasped. "Distrackt virus. I can isolate it at the third..thrid mind. I th-think..."

"Do that then." Bass nodded.

"Mmmm-kay. Send more anti-ti virus. Forte...'mm sorry." she started to cry, reaching out for his hand. "I was bad and I d-din't listen to you. It's all my fault. I''m sorrreee I alaways mass you up. I do everyfing bad-ad an' get ya in trouble. I'm realliy sorreeyee..."

Bass tried his best to be soothing, and he even took her hand. "Sonata...shut up, okay? Everything is going to be fine. Divert all your power to fighting the virus."

Crystal Bot nodded, shutting her eyes. She settled down and went right back to her self-repairs. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately - Bass didn't know how these things worked) she stopped writhing so much, and the facial expressions calmed. She shook some, but it wasn't as fast and the fight seemed...well, under control. As under contol as a person shaking and shivering could be.

"I don't understand what's going on," Mega Man said, peering over at Crystal Bot. "But if her self-repair functions are going then she has a chance. Roll, get our anti-virus discs again. She should get all the help she can."

"Right." Roll hurried along.

Mega Man took the discs from his sister and started inserting them into the computer pillar beside Crystal Bot. Through the wire plugged into her neck, they accessed her mind and started working their programming on the poor girl-bot's infected head.

"Alright, Roll, I'm going to help Auto check on our defenses." Rock wondered if he sounded as tired as he felt. "Install as many anti-viruses on Crystal as you can. After you're done here, go ahead to the second basement. Lock it behind you, and stay with our future."

Everyone activated in the room knew what he was talking about: Mega Man X and the Dr. Light capsule. Roll nodded, nervously wringing her hands. Getting things set up wouldn't take her too long, Mega Man knew. He just hoped something in there could help their shiny-bot friend.

_Well, at least Jewel Man can't see her like this._

Mega Man held back a groan. Jewel Man had volunteered to go fight Zero. There was no telling if he was alive or not. Mega Man was only moderately tempted to send him a transmission to try and find out. Was it worth the risk...? But those thoughts would have to wait. He had to recheck the armor plating for the lab (man it had been so hard to convince Dr. Light to install those!) and try to figure out how he could add to the lab's defenses. Mega Man passed Bass by and left without a word.

That was just fine with Bass. He had even less to do than Mega Man, and he wasn't at all interested in the monitoring system's view of the battle against Zero. He wanted desperately for someone to talk to, but the only person he was willing to trust had had a plasma sword shoved through his head.

_I swear I'm going to find a way to make him suffer. No one gets away with hurting Treble..._

But how was Treble? Bass decided he might as well check out the dog. Crystal Bot had taught him a little about getting the purple wolf repaired. The only trouble was, if the problem was something simple enough that Bass could solve it, the others would have already tried. Bass turned anyway. It was something to do.

He immediately wished he hadn't. There beside his dog was Proto Man, standing there arms folded with an aura of grim fog around him. The lab was dark enough without Proto Man's melancholy spirit hanging about. As soon as Blues saw that Bass noticed him, the former robot sighed and dropped his eyes.

"I take back everything bad I ever said about the head fins."

Startled, Bass lifted his hand to his head: nothing but hair. Proto Man pointed to the repair table where Bass had activated. On the head of the table, where Bass hadn't even noticed it yet, sat his helmet. Those two large head fins, magnificent, graceful, and so classically indicative of Bass, had a huge melty gap through the middle of them both, running perpendicular across both. It was clearly obvious what Zero's weapon had done. It was also clearly obvious what the saber would have done to Bass' head if those two fins weren't there to interrupt. Bass wasn't sure if he was more grateful for or more hateful of Wily's technical works.

This was the first thing Bass was afraid of for the longest time. It was like getting hit in the powercore with a javelin.

"When the hell were you going to tell me about this?" Bass demanded from Roll.

Roll just nervously lowered her head. "...Never."

"Eh...I guess I don't blame you." Bass focused again on the newcomer. "So what are you doing back here? Haven't made Rock suffer enough yet?"

"Let me make this clear: I hate you. A lot." Proto Man couldn't keep up his tough guy act, and his glinted eyes withered out with a pathetic sigh and some more staring at his feet. "I know I've done wrong, and I have to do what little I can to fix things. I want you to turn me in to the police."

Proto Man's head only went up long enough to gauge Bass' reaction. Bass did nothing but frown and wait for the loner robot to continue.

"I've come to realize things." Blues said quietly. "I've done wrong, and every time I run away I make my problems so much worse. I've been doing it this for years. The trouble is...I know I can't trust myself. I'm too weak to go and turn myself in to the REA. I need someone I know I can't defeat to bring me there and make sure I'm in custody. And I can't...I can't face Rock again." Proto Man dared to look up. "Um...how is has he been?"

"What, since you punched him in the face?" Bass showed no mercy, neither with his words or his accusing eyes. "He cried on and off for a full hour and a half. Tries to pretend he's alright, but he's been mopey ever since."

Proto Man wished Bass could feel the full force of his hate, but that was hard to accomplish under his visor. Bass understood Blues' hate well enough with only his mouth exposed anyway. Not that Proto Man could keep up such an expression for long. It was a hard enough task to even come here. Again, the floor was a much safer view than anywhere higher.

"I guess we're even." Proto Man's voice was thick with bitterness. "I had to witness...and you had to deal with Rock. Please...just help me. I can't do this alone. I'll just run away again and screw everything up. I'm not strong enough to help him fight Zero, so I might as well be in custody."

The dark robot scowled. He had his fill of depressed, dead, and virus-ridden robots. He didn't care about his career that much (if he couldn't defeat Zero, what did it matter he pulled cats out of trees?), but whatever would get him out of that lab was a good idea.

"Fine, let's go." he snapped. "It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"Wait..." Roll finally mustered up the courage to speak, and she went up to a somber Proto Man. Every step she took nearer to him made him more nervous, and though he tried, he couldn't make direct eye contact. It was hard to tell under the visor anyway. Without any hesitation, Roll took Proto Man's hand.

"I just want you to know," she said. "That I'm not ashamed of you."

"Roll...I..." he stammered. "I'm sorry...for everything...it's just..."

"It's okay." Roll reached her arms tightly around his neck. "You don't have to say anything."

Proto Man finally hugged her back, wishing so many things. One of them was that he had spent more time with his little sister. The poor girl had seen very little of her brother over the years, and he had screwed that up. It was too late to dwell on now. Fate had him, and it was only the more inescapable for being his own fault.

"Tell Rock I said I'm sorry."

"I will!" Roll promised. "I'll...I'll always think of you."

"I wish you wouldn't." Proto Man let her go. "Now be good for Rock."

Roll nodded, wondering how she would ever keep herself from bursting out in tears. Auto too was unhappy, and he wasn't going to let the first Light-bot go without saying his goodbye. From his workstation, Auto saluted Proto Man. The latter just nodded, managing something of a smile for the repair-bot.

_Funny...I don't really know Auto that well either. _

"Let's go." Bass was firm, but there was no cruelty in his voice. "Time to get this over with."

Proto Man knew what he had gotten himself into. He nodded in Bass' direction, and they both teleported out. Roll felt like she hated the both of them. She hated Rock for not being there (not that Proto Man would have shown up were he in the room) and she hated Auto for going back to work. She didn't hate Crystal Bot, but if the tech-bot didn't start operating normally soon, then she definitely would. Roll inspected the computer pillar that Crystal was plugged into. All the anti-virus programs were installed, fighting their way through the jumble that was Crystal Bot's tormented mind. For a moment, Crystal Bot's expression pulled into one of complete and utter misery, before fading out again.

Roll stood back and shuddered. She clutched an arm and sniffed. There wasn't anything more she could do for Crystal Bot. All they could do was hope that somehow her self-repair functions could set her right. For now her part was over.

_I suppose it's time for me to go to the second basement. _

Roll hastened away to the door, trying not to let the sounds coming from the monitor distract her and make her look. The monitoring systems had finally caught up with Zero, and Roll wasn't willing to hear any of the devastation coming off of it. Against her will her thoughts wandered to the Wily robots. How many of them were still alive? Did any of them actually damage Zero before they died? Would something eventually wear Zero down? Roll sure hoped so. The army was out there, and it just wouldn't make sense if so many fighters were out there and Zero somehow made it out of the city.

Of course, just because something didn't make sense didn't mean it couldn't happen.

Roll's sickening musings kept her from really noticing the trip to the second basement. The first basement used to be in disarray - Dr. Light felt that if it were messy no one would suspect that you could go further down. Without the doctor here, Roll's reasoning took over: why should the basement be any more disorganized than the rest of the house? So now the arrangement of failed robot designs, old blueprints of stuff that didn't work, and a few of both that were red herrings, were all sorted out properly by date, type, and size.

None of them were in the far corner of the basement. The housekeeper-bot lowered her hand over one of the blue tiles until she heard the faintest of sounds. The floor accepted her passcodes. Without warning the floor lifted, revealing a small, circular space underneath. There wasn't too much room in it, only enough for about two people Roll's size to lay in with mild comfort. The outer rim of the circle was all black panelling, with one little button tucked away under the side that could hardly be noticed if you didn't know where it was. The girl-bot knew, and she crept into the circle and lay down. The basement floor closed over her, and once it hardlocked shut, she pushed the button.

This sort of teleportation was always weird. It was closed circuit teleportation, providing a robot with the ability to go to another circle of black metal (what kind of metal was that stuff anyway?) that was specified by the first. This circle, however, was vertical and not horizontal, making it very disorienting for Roll to go from laying down into a standing postion. She never went down to the second basement much, so she never had the opportunity to get used to it. Not that she cared to. Ever since that fateful day she brought Snake Man there, the place was eerie to her, even if all that happened in a timeline she no longer lived in.

Roll shuddered involuntarily, though nothing about the place was particularly frightening. It was just a deep storage room, containing Dr. Light's most secretive technologies, as well as numerous energy pellets and E tanks on sturdy metal shelves. The right side of the room had another closed circuit teleporter in its wall. That led on to the chamber holding the "sleeping" Mega Man X and Dr. Light's mind storage capsule. Roll tried not to look in that direction, though it was hard to look the other way without thinking of the last time she was there. Mega Man had been killed, Auto was dead, the lab was destroyed, and all that remained of Dr. Light's work was in this very room. Roll could still see an impatient Snake Man, her only "friend", digging through the cabinets to find weapons and supplies. She began to wish that he would show up in this universe.

Roll went to go find the rolling chair. While technically robots don't need to sit, she felt like it nonetheless. The rolling chair was a bit hard to find, as someone had stuffed it in an aisle between the shelves carrying energy capsules and armor plating. Yes, this place could use a touch of Roll.

_Cleaning...what good will cleaning ever do? _Roll plopped down in the chair with insolence, stubbornly folding her arms in rebellion against...something. _All I've ever done in my life is clean. I've never helped anyone! How dare I complain when I'm just too weak to do anything!_

Roll knew perfectly well that she was being stubborn and that her attitude wasn't going to help her. She didn't care. Why should she? She couldn't do anything, and it infuriated her. A sudden realization hit, and she stood up from the chair, looking firmly upwards. GrimMoody wasn't God, but if she was writing all of this, then Roll wanted answers.

"GrimMoody!" Roll called out, unafraid. No one in the building would be able to hear her from there. "GrimMoody, I want to talk to you! Get down here!"

She waited a moment, but there was no reply. Roll frowned, and she felt like she would cry even without tear ducts. It wasn't fair. Why wouldn't GrimMoody hurry up and answer already? After all, she was the one that sent Roll back into the past to change everything. Roll couldn't do it alone.

"GrimMoody!" Roll tried again, angrier than before. "How dare you? How can you say it was wrong for Dr. K to make us go through the Maverick Wars and the Cyber Elf War when you're doing this to us? You're such a hypocrite! Even now Zero is destroying my home city, and he'll come to the lab as soon as he gets past the army! If you care about us at all, do something!"

Again, nothing. There was no appearance of a nerdy, be-spectacled girl with only a mild grasp of fashion. Indeed, GrimMoody was sitting at home listening to techno. She simply didn't feel like getting up from her dining room table to speak to Roll, though she contemplated getting another slice of her grandmother's wonderful chocolate pie and some milk.

Roll didn't know any of that. All she could see was the storage room ceiling, and it became more obvious by the second that no answer was forthcoming. Roll let out a sob and sank back into the chair. It wasn't going to work.

"I don't understand." Roll found herself talking to the author despite the fact she knew nothing would happen. "You said that I was supposed to go back and change everything and save us all from the wars and from being wiped out. I haven't done _anything _useful since I got back. How can I change anything? I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing! Why didn't you tell me?"

The housekeeper couldn't think of a solution to her problems, try as she might. It was just too hard to reason to herself logically. Had GrimMoody really given her a purpose in coming back to the past?

_So...if she's been writing the story of everything that's happening, she must have given me some sort of clue._

Whatever that clue could be Roll couldn't guess. She just sat in the chair, listening to it creak as she shuffled it further back against the wall. She glanced upward one more time with the faint hope that GrimMoody would come down, or at least say something. Roll finally gave up and began to think of her options.

"So..." she said with a sigh. "I'm supposed to stay down here until Rock comes and gets me. Unless he gets killed..."

Roll did believe Bass when he said that Rock would be killed if he tried to fight Zero. Wouldn't he know? Roll wondered in vain what would happen to her if Mega Man never came to get her. Was she to just shut down and wait out the thirty years for X to be ready to emerge? Would the world even exist as it was before, or would Zero have destroyed it all? Whatever happened, thirty years was far too long to wait for someone to save them. Even if Roll knew how to access the second closed circuit teleporter, she didn't know how to activate X.

Roll's thoughts wandered from there. She found herself thinking of the time she had spent in the future with X and Zero and the Maverick Hunters. It had been hard for her then to think of Zero as a killer. Of course, she had known all along that he spread the Maverick virus. Roll almost laughed at herself - how easily she had brushed his hair, not even once thinking of the destruction he had caused or was capable of. The calm Maverick Hunter seemed nothing like the demented killer in Monstropolis. They looked exactly the same, and yet nothing alike.

As Roll was thinking of this, a memory popped into her head. For no other reason then she had nothing better to do, Roll watched it. It was from the time Bass was training her to fight. Roll sort of liked this memory. The cute fight training outfit she'd designed was pretty adorable.

**"You're getting better." Bass encouraged her. **

**Though his voice was free from sarcasm, Roll still doubted him. This was at least the fiftieth time they were in the training room working on her fighting against a sword bearing enemy, and about the hundred and fifth time Bass' borrowed energy sword knocked her down. Roll grumpily lifted herself off of the floor and started dusting off her embroidered top.**

**"I don't know how you call this better..." she said. "You keep beating me!"**

**"Didn't I say you couldn't possibly win against me?" he grinned. "Now shut up and stop complaining. All complaining does is make sure that you definitely lose. You lasted forty-three seconds against me, and that's ten seconds more than last time. I call that better."**

**"If you say so." Roll tested the energy sword implanted in her arm, blinking it on and off. "Well, no damage to that."**

**Roll was glad that the training room was empty. Bass at least had the decency to train her while the Maverick Hunters weren't trying to improve their C rank fighters. Roll was very glad that she would never have to face a ranking test. For now, her trainer spared her the embarrasment, and they were the only two in the large gym, and only the mirrors on the walls witnessed Roll's fight clumsiness. Thankfully they were too high up in the Maverick Hunters building for anyone to see her through the windows.**

**Then suddenly Roll winced. The double doors were opening. The next training session didn't start soon, did it? Roll turned to find that no, it was just Zero. The taller robot glanced around the room, with no outward sign on his face that he wasn't happy to see Bass. Roll was by now very skilled in finding out what Proto Man used to mean by his expressions. She knew exactly how Zero felt about his older brother, and she winced.**

**"X isn't here?" Zero asked.**

**"No. Your boyfriend is off talking to Signas, or something." Bass suddenly found his fingernails a lot more interesting than they were thirty seconds ago. "You can find him in the office."**

**"Hi, Zero!" Roll was chirpy, even if they weren't. "Bass and I are working on fighting sword-based Mavericks."**

**"Really?" Much to Bass' discomfort, Zero fully entered the room and approached Roll. "Oh Bass, I think I'll test your trainee here."**

**"Um, no, please!" Roll protested, backing away a couple of steps. "I'm not ready."**

**"Yeah, well, considering the only time **_**you'll **_**be fighting Mavericks is when you least expect it, I think this is a perfect test." Bass lifted the side of his mouth. "Go ahead, Zero. But get a training saber."**

**"No, of course not, Bass." Zero glared at him. "Because I'm completely stupid."**

**"Finally admitting it, I see. Now go on, Roll, get ready. Decide which defense I taught you is the best one for Zero."**

**As Bass spoke, his brother exchanged his normal weapon for one of the weaker test swords hanging on the wall. Normally Zero didn't like parting with it, but for now he would. It hardly seemed fair to use it anyway. Poor Roll was shivering already at the thought of having to fight him at all. **

**Zero took a position on the floor about ten feet away from her. "Don't worry, Roll. I'll go easy on you."**

**Roll nodded, glancing at Bass momentarily. She went into her defensive stance. "Okay, I'm ready."**

**"Pretend I'm a Maverick coming in to capture you on the street." Zero said, lifting his sword.**

**Even without his normal weapon, fighting Zero was a frightening experience. Roll hadn't the confidence of a Maverick. But what she did have was a grumpy black and gold Wily-bot watching her every move. She couldn't let him down. **

**Zero dashed toward her, activating the training sword. It flashed out yellow, meeting Roll's red sword as they clashed. But before Zero realized it, Roll swung around and promptly knocked out the back of his left knee, smacked the sword out of his hand, and had both it and her own at his neck. No one was more shocked than Roll herself. Even as she got Zero down, she automatically dropped the training saber and deactivated her own, fearfully covering her mouth with her hands.**

**"Roll!" Bass scolded. "If you're winning, don't drop your weapons!"**

**"I'm sorry! I...I just didn't expect that to work."**

**Zero was definitely shocked, and as he got up from his downed knee he stared at Bass. "What exactly have you been teaching her?"**

**"Simple." Bass directed his attention to Roll. "You see, Roll, the important thing to remember about your fighting style is that you look like a wimpy, crybaby girl. That's your advantage. If nobody takes you seriously, then you can surprise them and win easy, even if they're ten times stronger than you."**

**"Hmph! Thanks a bunch, Bass..." Roll was really starting to not like being trained, no matter how cute her outfit was.**

**Zero's concern was different. He stared at Bass with the sort of hate reserved for traitors. "You...you trained her to kill me..."**

**Bass rolled his eyes. "Relax, Sis. If I really wanted her to kill you then I wouldn't risk you finding out her trick. Besides, the day might come that she has to kill you, so I don't want to hear it."**

Despite herself, Roll couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Zero. He had to suffer a lot in that timeline, knowing the sort of robot that Dr. Wily made him to be. And then it struck her.

"What am I saying?" Roll exclaimed. "Bass trained me to fight Zero! That's why I went to the future, to learn how! That must be what GrimMoody meant. She wanted me to come back and destroy Zero myself! And because Bass trained me, I know just how to do it! I've only got one chance, but if Zero thinks I'm as wimpy as I look then I can defeat him! I'll just have to find those upgrades."

She knew where they were. It wasn't a matter of finding them, but finding the courage for them. There was one automated machine in the far left of the room, fully equipped to accept computer instructions and repair accordingly. Roll pulled in a breath sharply as her gaze forcefully wandered in that direction. She couldn't see the machine past the shelves, but she knew it was there, waiting for her like fate and calling her like the same. Zombie-ish, Roll got up out of the chair. She hardly even noticed as her legs carried her around the shelves, further and deeper into the basement. Her senses were filled with nothing but the thought of the machine, and what she knew she had to do.

"The author of an atrocious undertaking," Roll whispered. "Ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it...ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.."

The idea that her family and friends would object dwelled barely on the fringes of her mind, like the outcast of a large city. Any protests that Rock could make were useless. She loved her brothers, she respected Auto, and she accepted Bass. Yet all their possible opinions were infintesimal, too small to be regarded. Roll couldn't even conjure up the words that would surely make up their protests. It was too late. This was her purpose, and she was the only one that could fufill it.

Oh look, those where her hands. They were already ahead of Roll, accessing the upgrades that long dead Crystal Man inexplicably made for her on the automated machine's computer. , and . Was she really loading them down into the execution sequence of the machine? Surely she wasn't initializing the sequence on that little keyboard. She must have been - the confirmation message appeared on the little 21 inch monitor.

Twenty-five seconds until the process began. Roll got up on the table, laying down as peacably as she could. She caught one last glimpse of her right hand. It wouldn't be there when she awoke. The girl-bot tried to avoid trembling at the thought. After all, she had no choice.

"The future already exists."

Roll shut down.

-t-

Auto took out a fan out of habit. He was overheating a little. Nothing serious, but he still pulled out his little fan and waved it nonetheless. He'd been working himself pretty hard getting the lab's defenses up, but now things were settled as well as they could be. The army would do what it could, but it was pretty much an inevitability that Zero would come to the lab. Auto didn't have any way of knowing that for sure, but everyone knew how Wily was. Zero would get there eventually. All they could do was hope that Zero was weak enough from his earlier battles to be defeated here.

A groan sounded from behind him, and Auto turned to find Crystal Bot rising from her repair table. The girl-bot rubbed her eyes, slowly getting to her feet. Auto quickly approached, reaching back with one hand to see if his bazooka was still strapped to his back. It was. He patted it reassuringly, hoping he wouldn't have to use it.

"Feeling any better, sweetie?"

"Ugh, not really." Crystal complained with a pout. "My first mind is back online and I've got the virus confined to my third mind, but it's still there. I've done all I can, but it just won't go away. I...I don't think my memory drives can remove this one..." Crystal Bot took off her tiara and started fingering it. "I don't know if I can be Bass' technician like this. I'm safe for now, but...I'm not as smart. Wah." Crystal stuck out her bottom lip.

"Don't talk like that!" Auto snapped to attention and saluted. "This is Light Laboratories, where anything is possible!"

Crystal Bot looked up, staring at Auto with despondent eyes. "You can't say that when you've never felt it."

"But can you operate normally now?"

"I think so, sort of." Crystal Bot said. "I feel really weird - my intelligence and A.I. are lessened by at least thirty-three percent. I don't think I'll do anything bad, but I'll do a few more systems checks anyway."

"Let me do one!" Auto gently lifted her up and sat her back on the table, hooking the computer's wire back into her neck. "I know how your mind works! Leave it to me! Your second mind is like a normal robot's, so worst come to worst you can just operate with that. Alright, let's get the computer running...ah! You're looking really clean! I'm not detecting any waverings in your program security. Don't hook up to any other computers just yet, but you're looking good so far! I'll let the computer run a complete scan on you, though. Better safe than sorry!"

Crystal nodded. "Okay, I guess."

Crystal Bot started swinging her legs over the side of the table, feeling bored. She noted that Auto was a little extra cheerful - too cheerful. Was Zero destroyed already? Crystal glanced over at the little monitor at the side of the room to see what was happening on the satellite feed. She winced. More minced Monstropolis. Auto probably left it on just in case Zero did something he needed to know about. The wire was only a few feet long, so Crystal Bot couldn't get up from the repair table. Instead she indulged her nervous curiosity by engaging her zoom feature to see the monitor more clearly. The satellite monitoring system wasn't focused on Zero, but some other red robot.

_That's funny. _Crystal thought. _That kinda looks like Roll-chan._

She engaged her zoom even further. And then she choked.

"Auto-kun, it's...it's...!" was all she managed, and her wildly gesturing arms completed the sentence for her.

Auto went over to the monitoring screen. The truth of what he saw before him didn't register. It just couldn't. There was no way in the world that little Roll Light was out there - oh wait, someone red was approaching her. It couldn't be Proto Man...

"GAAH!" Auto screamed. "ROCK, GET IN HERE NOW!"

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Merry Christmas, y'all!

- I always try to avoid saying "Bass' face". It's too pun for me.

- In case you missed Afterlife, "Dr. K" is the code name I've given the creator of the Mega Man series.

- In the Mega Man world, anti-viruses are literally anti-viruses. Namely, viruses with the purpose of destroying anything harmful to a given robot. These viruses stay in the system as a permanent part of the robot, activating with digitally brutal intent when a threat pops up. The better ones are even known to trace the origin of a given bad virus and hunt it down on the internet. It's illegal for such anti-viruses to destroy the computers of origin, but oftentimes they do. Naturally, the Zero Virus can't be destoyed in this way, as it travels by a new sort of wave that no scientist currently understands, pretty much proving that Wily could have done really well in making untracible radio waves for the government or something if he hadn't been so evil.

- Crystal Bot's three minds have three different purposes. The first is the base of Crystal's personality, and it's the generally the one that interacts with people and figures out more complex problems she faces. Her second mind is the least like X's and the most like a normal robot, and it has enough personality A.I. to be insecure on its own. Its main purpose is to make Crystal's head compatible with modern computers and robots. Her third mind is the most like X's, about equivalent to a reploid (though less efficient), and it's the experimental computer designed to make estimates, absorb new data, and think more outside the box of normal programming. It takes the most risks, hence its increased vulnerability to the Zero virus. Crystal Bot technically has a fourth mind that does nothing more than act as a virus guard, but the Zero Virus bypassed it entirely. Sucks to be her.

Character Profiles!

=====Tomahawk Man

**"Tomahawk Man does not lie."**

Good point: Brave

Bad point: Exclusive

Likes: Horse riding

Dislikes: Lies

Tomahawk Man also doesn't like his quote, but a news channel caught a clip of him saying it, and it's now his unintended catchprase. Tomahawk Man is not amused. He almost never speaks in the third person, and he feels like this quote makes him sound like an idiot.

In any case, Tomahawk Man was created specifically for the robot master championship, and while this didn't bother him at the time, it irked him once he became a Wily robot. The other Team 6 robots had homes and family to talk about, but all Tomahawk Man had was a team of American technicians that worked on him. True, he had some good times with them, and they were pretty fun, but Tomahawk Man simply didn't know them as well as he could have, and the only task they gave him, namely to win the contest, he never actually got to complete.

While Tommy didn't mind obeying Knight and Yamato Man when they ordered Team 6 to join Mega Man and return home, he doesn't have the kind of nostalgia they do, and he constantly wonders what he's going to do when he gets there. Nobody plans on having another robot championship any time soon. The last thing he wants to do is join some sort of Native American museum display, even as a tour guide. Trouble is, he doesn't know what he could do instead.

Tomahawk Man never shied from his duties as a Wily-bot, and was the most ready of all the team to accept Yamato and Knight Man as their leaders. He never put too much thought into the consequences of what he did, though he knows in his heart all of his crimes. Tomahawk rarely spoke to anyone outside of his team, giving him the appearance of being shy or something. He's not shy at all, and this can be seen whenever he's hanging out with 6. He's usually the most boisterous of them when they talk together, and always has something interesting to say.

Tom was shut up in the robot museum until some time after MM8, when Wily wanted to restore his robot masters (think the Power Fighters). He has since stayed out of the museum, though was caught again shortly before the events of Okkusenman. After the last Skull Castle was destroyed, he was part of the fateful incident in Canada when Flame Man tried to steal their oil. Tomahawk was damaged, but meant to fight on longer. Only Signal Man got to him first and dragged him back to become a Cain servant. Tomahawk hated that period of his life the most.

=====Plant Man

**"This flower is so beautiful!"**

Good point: Sensibility

Bad point: Depression

Likes: Sunbath

Dislikes: Honey bee

Y'know, it seems really weird for a plant to not like bees. Bees are good to plants. Huh.

The wiki doesn't say where Plant Man is from, and after checking youtube, the game says he's from "Forgotten Area". What's up with that? What does forgotten area mean? The rainforest? North Korea? Vietnam's jungles? Some distant place in Africa? I'm going to say South America, mainly because in my mind flowers + forgotten area = South America. It's weird how little I think of down there. Everybody thinks about North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia all the time. How much time do we really spend thinking of Brazil and stuff? Can you even name a South American country off the top of your head that isn't Brazil? Let me try. Columbia, Argentina, Chile...well crap. That's all I got. I can think of a lot more African countries. Kenya, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Lybia, Egypt, South Africa, Congo, Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Sao Tome and Principe (sp?), Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Lesotho, Swaziland, Equitorial Guinea...

Okay, okay, enough showing off. Back to Plant Man.

Plant Man was built a long time ago by someone unknown. He was found in the jungle by Brazillian authorities, and they figured he might as well be put to use in the capital's gardens. Plant Man loved the job, and he especially liked being around lots of people. He liked being freed from the lonliness of the jungle, though often the social troubles of Brazil get him down. It's very difficult for him to cope with this.

However, a break appeared in the form of the robot competition, and Brazil was more than happy to present a representative of their country to the tournament. He enjoyed the attention immensely, and was glad to accept the upgrades necessary to make him competition worthy. And then MM6 happened. Lovely. Plant Man took his conversion to a Wily-bot very hard. He too was captured right after MM6, and was freed from the robot museum for the power battles. He and Tomahawk Man got along very well, though sometimes Tomahawk Man felt annoyed by Plant's obstinate sensitivity.

Plant Man looks forward to going home, and he hopes he'll be accepted. Brazil isn't as stern a country as others are, and Plant Man, even as an evil robot, remained popular with Brazillians. They are likely to take him back with open arms.


	23. The Wiles of Fate

"Sargeant!" the soldier-bot called out. "We've got the tanks in line! Perimeter is now fully established!"

The lanky robot, each limb massive chunks of metal armor, ran up to his armored but human leader. The grizzled man, his thick body far too accustomed to the metal platelets and heavy helmet he wore, turned his trunk-like self to his metal subordinate.

"Good job, Hammer Joe. Do we have the anti-teleport field up?"

It's in place." Hammer Joe affirmed. "The other platoons just confirmed. Zero's trapped for sure, this time."

Sargeant James Harrow wasn't so sure about that. Two platoons already had gone down, and though the Monstropolis street was now blocked by both tanks and another full platoon of Hammer Joes, Harrow didn't want to make assumptions. Still the anti-teleport field was up, and that by itself was an accomplishment. Harrow turned and eyed the pillar to the rear of their position. The thing looked like a sci-fi show leftover. Three angles legs stood a six-inch thick iron beam up on its end, and at the top the beam tapered into a soft point. This was one of several shutdown beams set up around the city. Harrow wished the technology would improve. The desruction of one such pillar left the others practically useless unless they got in closer.

"Where's the choppers? Tell them to get above us and keep a lookout for Zero." The sargeant said this to the Hammer Joe beside him, then barked out further orders for the platoon. "HJs one through seven, left side! Eight to fourteen, to the right! HJ Fifteen, you stick with me."

"Yes, sir!"

"Get the Sniper Joes on the radio!" Harrow continued. "Confirm they're in position. Zero's going to be heading for one of our pillars first, so they've got to be ready if this is the one he chooses."

Communication was much easier in the age or robots. Hammer Joe 15 simply used his internal comm, saving on both radio equipment and time. Before Harrow finished speaking, Fifteen had already communicated the inquiry to the Sniper Joes located in the hotel on the right and the four story mall on the left. Fifteen nodded with satisfaction.

"They're in place, Sargeant!"

"Then let's do the same."

Harrow and Fifteen huddled behind the "anti-robot" barrier between the tanks ("anti-robot" was what it said on the label, but both the human and the technology had seen what Zero could do), and got into place behind Hammer Joes Seven and Eight. Two Sniper Joes lay at the space between the tanks and the barrier, their eyes always open and ready to fire a shot. Harrow hoped it would be enough.

"Sarge, why are we setting up like this?" HJ-7 asked. "We should be going in there and hunting him down. Zero's just one robot."

"Seven," Harrow kept his eyes on the empty street before them as he spoke. "Zero has killed almost forty Wily-bots in the past two hours. During that same time he has also blown the top off Kauffman tower, destroyed another estimated sixteen buildings, and killed a number of our men I don't know and I'd rather not guess. He needs to be contained, and only by presenting a tight, strategic defense can we get him to make a mistake. He can't leave here until one of these pillars is destroyed, making it optimum bait for him to fall into our trap."

The robots too turned their eyes to their tanks, feeling more sober than ever. HJ15, however, still wasn't quite daunted from talking. This annoyed the sargeant a bit, but the moment was so tense, he could hardly judge the robot for trying to break it. Thankfully, Hammer Joes were programmed with only a marginally ability to feel nervous.

"I wish Mega Man was here." Fifteen said quietly. "He'd take Zero down."

"No, he wouldn't." Harrow focused his steel eyes on his subordinate. "You saw the footage. Zero took out Bass in half a minute. It used to take Mega Man well over a minute to defeat Bass back when they were still enemies. No, Fifteen, Mega Man can't fight Zero. You do the math. It's up to us this time."

Hammer Joe 15's heart sank. He knew it was his job to not depend on Monstropolis' favorite hero, but Sarge's glare spoke more than his words HJ15, if nothing else but to keep his sergeant from staring at him, put his mind back on task and readied his flying projectiles. It was a big responsibility to fill in for the blue bomber.

"Contact the choppers. See if they spot anything."

Before Fifteen could obey, a great mass of flame streaked out from behind the crossroads before them, crashing into the ground with a final flash of fire. Only the soldiers' training and constant exposure to military equipment allowed them to know exactly what they were looking at. Needless to say, one of the choppers had found something. And paid the price.

"All eyes open! SJs cover the pillar!" Harrow shouted. "Grenade throwers, get ready! Wait, hold your fire! Some idiot's in the way!"

It was an assumption, but surely it was stupid for one of their own tank drivers to suddenly appear from around the corner of a street ahead of them, not only near Zero but in the platoon's direct line of fire. Even more strange, the tank turned itself and its cannon directly toward the platoon.

"Tell that man to stand down!" Harrow could feel a nerve bulging on his forehead as he screamed this out. "Tell him to get out of there!"

"No response, Sarge! He's not listening!"

That much was true. Instead the cannon of the tank lowered, as if refining its aim. In fact, this is exactly what it was doing.

_**ker-BLAM!**_

At once the scene became a madness of tank and gunfire. The first blast impacted between the armor panel and the tank to Harrow's right, hitting an unfortunate Sniper Joe and Hammer Joe Eight. The half blasted panelling barely managed to protect the rest of those huddling behind it. The right tank was only damaged in the tread, so it too joined in as the barrage of gunfire exploded out to their target.

"That's enough! Cease fire!" Harrow ordered. "Someone tell me what the hell's going on!"

"Target destroyed, Sarge!" a Sniper Joe called out.

"Go check it out, will you?"

"Right, Sarge!"

As this Sniper Joe approached the tank, Harrow found himself eyeing his troops. Several Sniper and Hammer Joes were still in position, covering the Joe sent to investigate. Two "medical" robots painted in white cautiously approached to pull out HJ8. One of them whispered to the sargeant pointing backwards before hurriedly taking the damaged robot and scurrying away. Alarmed, Harrow immediately snapped around. The pillar was already slashed across, and the two Joes closest to it were stabbed clean through.

"Hey Sarge!" the Sniper Joe searching the enemy tank, almost forgotten, called out. "There's marks at the back of this tank! The shell is cut through like a guy cut himself out of it!"

Harrow cursed. "Zero's here! HJ15, contact-"

With a thunk, Hammer Joe Fifteen hit the ground. Behind that, still as a statue but for his golden hair in the wind, Zero stood with a brilliant smile on his face. Harrow had no time to lift his rifle or see what Zero did to the other robots around him. In fact, he had no time to even scream. Zero, like red lightning, swiftly punched Harrow right in the throat, bending Harrow's armor and snapping the delicate tissues of the human's neck. His weapon went flying, to be seen no more.

Zero still grinned down at the choking human. He bent down and held his saber dangerously close to the human's chest; Harrow winced. He had studied too much in school: he knew exactly what sort of effects plasma type weapons had on the human body. Already Harrow could almost feel his skin peeling. He knew the armor was in-between the sword and himself, but how long could that last?

And what was taking Zero so long to kill him?

It was actually only a few seconds. Zero's left hand held the sword in place while the right seemed to fumble with something. A little slip of something silver-ish fell from Zero's hand. Zero still held something, and as he bent down with it, Harrow finally saw what it was. A strangled wheeze escaped his broken throat, but that was all Harrow could do. The grenade that now lay next to his head no longer had a pin.

And Zero swiftly flitted away.

In mere seconds, the red robot of destruction was up on one of the higher rooms of the hotel, watching in glee as the surviving soldiers below scrambled in fear in the aftermath of the grenade. They scrambled about, trying to guess what awful surprise Zero had next for them. These soldiers and their Hammer and Sniper Joes were very lucky, however. Zero had no awful surprises for them, only a mildly pleasant one: he was going to let them live. For now, in any case.

Zero turned away from the window. As much as the fear in their eyes delighted them, it could only do so for a short amount of time if he wasn't going to kill them. Also, he had other matters to think about. He was perturbed, so he turned to the hotel room, ignoring the decor as much as possible as he paced back and forth through it.

Even if he did care for interior design, Zero could hardly be blamed for trying to ignore this place. The dull beige carpeting that all hotels seemed enamored with was so boring a sight that Zero couldn't even stare at his feet as he paced. Neither did he sit down at the couch, even though red was his favorite color. Robots don't need to sit. And they have absolutely no use for little pink lamps either, though this hotel had one on each side of the couch, each resting on a bland, wooden side table. Zero didn't even regard the rest of the hotel room. It was sure to be as dull as the living area.

Zero was indeed perturbed. As much fun as it had been to run through Monstropolis and wreck everything that dared resist him, they were not his targets. Zero grinned to think of Bass' demise. It put happiness in Zero's heart - a happiness that swiftly disappeared as he remembered the arrival and quick disappearance of Mega Man. Destroying the blue bomber brought a craving upon Wily's Masterpiece, and that his craving for destruction would go unsatisfied caught Zero up in a fit of anger. He swung out his saber furiously, slicing through one of the tacky lamps (who in the world thought that shade of pink went with a red couch anyway?).

But there was a greater craving. No, not for Proto Man, though that death bore its own delight. Zero thought it splendid how he would destroy Rock's traitorous brother. First he would sneak up behind Proto Man, politely tap him on the shoulder, and give him just one brief moment in which to see who it was that killed him. That was what Proto Man deserved for how he had treated the Master.

Auto's death wasn't his main craving either. In fact, it was simply a mild joy, one that would not last long. But Auto was the key to the Craving, to the one death that mattered more than all the rest. Mega Man X. Zero beamed at the thought. Unlike his plans for Proto Man and Mega, he had none for X. He was programmed to know by heart all the strategies of the three "greatest" robots, and the plans for the Light brothers would surely work as well as his plan for Bass had. Zero knew nothing, however, about X. This was fine. He would destroy Auto and drain the repair-bot's mind of all its secrets, and surely the location of X was one of those secrets.

The trouble was not that he couldn't find Light's Laboratory or get past the defenses. Zero knew where it was and had some estimate as to what the Lights were capable of doing as a defense. The real problem was, Zero wanted to fight Mega Man first. Zero was not afraid of auto cannons, force fields, or whatever else the Light used to protect their lab. Neither was he afraid of the bomber, but all the same, he knew Mega Man's track record. It was simply more logical to fight Mega Man away from his lab, kill him, and then attack the lab without the renowned robot hero protecting the place.

Zero reckoned he hadn't much choice. He'd attacked all of Mega Man's favorite places. Kauffman tower was a frequent look-out post for Mega Man, so that went first. Next was the sporting goods store (especially the soccer section), REA headquarters, Monstropolis stadium, and the robot pet shop that produced Rush's favorite kinds of bolts. Then Zero targeted the places where humans who hadn't evacuated would surely gather. Zero had destroyed all of this and more, and a ton of Wily-bots besides, and still Mega Man didn't show. Why wasn't he taking the bait? Surely Mega Man couldn't handle the destruction of his precious city?

That was the way the strategy was programmed into him, but Zero wasn't constrained by it. Assessing his situation, Zero figured that the logical solution was to just go to Light Laboratories and get it over with. As much as he would rather fight on his own terms than Mega Man's, Zero didn't mind. He was not programmed to feel fear. Nor would he if he were capable. A delighted smile rose to his face as he imagined the lovely little pile of armor that would remain once Mega Man was gone.

There was no more time to delay. Zero's mind was made up. and he strode towards the window and peered down. Foolish humans. They didn't have any spare anti-teleport pillars. Oh wait, he had already destroyed the trucks carrying those, hadn't he? Zero grinned. It was time to go.

An electric click sounded in his head, startling him. It wasn't painful or disruptive in any way, but the sheer surprise shocked him. It was a transmission. Zero could easily hack into anyone's encoded transmissions, and at any given time there were plenty of people trying to send him messages to get him to stop or trick him into opening his mind to their hacking. The difference here was that the transmissions sent by others had either no encoding or the simplest forms of it. The only encoding on this transmission was that it was unreadable to anyone without Zero's trans code - this was a message sent directly to him.

Zero paused. The only people that could have known his trans code were the few pathetic Wily-bots he had killed before heading to Monstropolis. Was it the master? Master was in the hospital, from what data he had gathered. Well, whoever it was, they had at least piqued his curiousity. He accessed the transmission. The message in the air wasn't really a message. It was robotic memories dated...well into the future? 21XX? Someone was doing some serious malfunctioning.

**"Great work, Zero!" Mega Man X said, approaching the computer console where Zero stood. "Those Mavericks won't know what hit them."**

This confused Zero. Mega Man X was approaching him casually and he wasn't even swinging his saber at the snooty Light-bot? And what was he doing with his face? Was that...smiling? Mega Man X was alive and unharmed and he was happy about it? Who had recorded these memories?

**"It's just a trick." Zero explained. "It was Alia's idea to hack into the computer and leave a virus that would automatically send us the location to the Mavericks' alternate bases."**

**"Hey, I'm not the one in there that got in and installed it without even tripping an alarm." a pink-armored blonde robot said. "You've done a wonderful job. It's handy to have you around."**

**"Don't forget me!" a fourth robot with light auburn hair and dark blue armor lifted two pistols as he spoke, pretending to fire off into the distance. "I got the Maverick leader and two of his guards too! I missed the third guy, but then I jumped clear over him and hit the force field controls. After that, getting rid of the generator was a piece of cake! I mean, how do you think Zero got through there so easily?"**

**"Oh, sure it was a piece of cake," X laughed. "Especially with me protecting you from the army of mechaniloids out in the hall."**

**"You're just mad I got there first." the robot laughed. "I beat the mighty Mega Man X for once!"**

**"Alright, victorious leader Axl." X was only mildly sarcastic. "I'm going to give our report to Signas so why don't you and Alia go and tell the other navigators to get our energy packs ready? I'll meet you at the navigation port for the next mission."**

**Zero, Axl, and Alia waved goodbye before heading through a hall toward some massive computer monitors and the girl-bots that worked them. As they did, Zero spoke to Axl in a very approving manner. **

**"I'm proud of you, Axl." he said. "I admit that when I first met you, I wasn't so sure, but if it weren't for me and X, you'd be the best Maverick Hunter out here."**

**"Gee, thanks Zero!" Axl's boyish grin showed up on his face. "You must have known how skilled I am even when I first showed up, huh? You always believed in me!"**

**"Um, actually I thought you were annoying." Zero confessed. "Luckily for you, I'm wrong sometimes."**

Zero paused and considered this memory. Who were these people? What was a Maverick? Why was he working with X? Someone must be trying to corrupt his files. All of this was some sort of animated farce...right? A second memory started to come through. Zero figured he might as well watch this one too, if only to use it to pinpoint the location of whoever sent it to him. Wherever it was, the robot recording the memory seemed to be walking through a hallway alongside Mega Man X and just behind Zero and Bass.

**"Screw you, Sis." Bass scoffed. "That's the kind of engineering that gets people killed."**

**"As long as the 'people' involved is you, I don't see a problem with it." Zero retorted, casually running a hand through a tangle in his hair. "If you're so worried about having those little purple pea shooters upgraded, then either get experimental or give up."**

**"You'd just like to see me explode, wouldn't you?"**

**"It'd be a nice change from looking at your ugly face all the time."**

**"We can't all be as pretty as you, **_**honey**_**."**

**From there on the conversation only descended, growing all the more disturbing. It quickly got so bad that Mega Man X blushed, and he'd heard Maverick talk most of his activated life.**

**"You guys!" he said. "Don't talk that way in front of my sister!"**

**Both offenders glanced back at the viewpoint of the memory, and they both winced a bit, silently apologizing. They both walked on, and little grins started to creep up on their faces. Bass glanced once more backwards, then let a full, but mischevious smile take complete hold.**

**"Zero, I just want you to know. You're a sapphic, imbecilic piece of detritus."**

**"How sweet." The pony-tailed robot replied. "I was just about to say what a homely, languorous abberation you are."**

**"Foppish sap!"**

**"Demeritorious juvenile!"**

**"Oh, **_**I'm **_**the juvenile one, you calamitous suckling?"**

**"Hm, I think I found the perfect word to describe you, Bass." Zero confidently folded his arms. "It's 'base'. Morally low, without estimable personal qualities. Dishonest and meanspirited, selfish and cowardly. Great, I have a new nickname for you. Base Bass."**

**"You better take that back right now," Bass growled. "Before I pummel your malapert glute."**

**"See? Base Bass strikes again."**

**"If you don't want me going through Hunters caling you 'Gaylord' then you better change your attitude."**

**Mega Man X laughed. "Is there any way in the world we can stop these two from arguing?"**

**"They really are real brothers!"**

That last comment came from the robot recording the memory. Zero initialized a voice scan to confirm his guess. It was Roll. He didn't really need the confirmation, he just did it out of habit. It was easy enough to guess that X was referring to Roll when he spoke of his sister. Unless Dr. Light had a girl version of X that he didn't know about, Roll was the only person it could be. Since there was no logical reason to assume someone else had transmitted her memories, he figured that it must be her at the coordinates he traced the signal to.

The robot thought about it for a moment. Roll wasn't one of his specialized targets. He was supposed to kill her at some point, but her death only brought about as much pleasure as anyone else's. It was probably better to ignore her and go for the lab. Only now Zero was curious.

-t-

Roll stood there in the warmth of the May sun, shivering. The park was as good a place as any for a fight, Roll decided. It was a large, open area, other than the crowd of trees far behind her, blocking out the sight of one of Monstropolis' most busy roads, and the playground several yards ahead. The little play area for children with its brightly colored playground equipment hadn't been touched by the destruction of Monstropolis, thus far anyway.

_Of course, what would Zero want with a destroyed playground, anyway?_ Roll wondered. _There's nothing here he needs to fight. Except me! I have to win! It's my fate!_

As much as Roll tried to make herself excited about being the one to destroy Wily's masterpiece, she still swallowed down a knot of fear catching in her throat. It was no small thing to fight a robot that had made such mincemeat of her beloved city. Dr. Wily had destroyed it many times before, and yet no single scheme had ever caught Monstropolis off guard like this one. Zero annihilated every robot he ever fought, leaving a wake of destruction behind him. The evidence of this was very present. Roll had only to turn her head to the left to see what Zero left behind. Roll didn't look. She also turned off her scent detection technology. This technology wasn't anything compared to a human nose, but it clearly conveyed the burning rubber and smoky ash quality in the air.

Roll glanced over to the right out of mere curiosity. She wished she hadn't, and her teeth bit down into her lip. The buildings closest to her were fine, but behind them the roarings of army fire, army radio, and army screaming burst out of the urban setting. Something exploded in the distance, and even that far away Roll shook. Two towers of smoke rose into the air, and Roll tried her hardest not to guess what caused them.

The girl-bot looked down at her right...well, not hand. The poor hand was now nothing more than a series of metal strips peeled back at the wrist, allowing the energy beam sword to erupt from her arm. Roll didn't activate the weapon yet.

_Wish me luck! _Roll spoke to her brothers in her thoughts. _It's ironic. So many times you've rescued me, and now its my turn to rescue you!_

Roll couldn't fool even herself. She knew how her brothers would feel if they knew what she was doing. Already their voices cried out in her head, protesting and demanding that she get back to the lab. She couldn't fight, they told her, and she wasn't wearing any armor. More than anything else, she simply hadn't been designed to fight because Dr. Light himself never wanted her to go to the battlefield.

_You don't understand...Bass trained me! I'm ready for this! He gave me a plan and the bravery to see it through!_

Somehow this didn't work either. Bass had gotten angry at Mega Man for volunteering to fight Zero - if he knew about Roll, he'd probably throw a fit. Roll shook those doubtful thoughts out of her head. It was too late, and she had to carry on. The memories were sent, and Roll knew it was only a matter of time before Zero got there. Roll pulled herself together. Hadn't she been the one to defeat Epidemic Man? Fought the scattered enemies of the years post-Robot Apocalypse? Defended herself against a Maverick? None of those things qualified her to defeat Zero, but it was enough to at least spring her trap. And that she had every intention of doing. All she had to do was look helpless so that Zero would underestimate her.

Apparently Zero already did. Instead of sneaking up, the tall blond teleported down, several yards away but still directly in front of her. Seeing his expressionless eyes staring at her, Roll shuddered and backed away a step. Catching herself, she took that step forward again and began to speak, haltingly at first.

"I...I know you don't remember those memories I sent you." she said. "That's because...well...they haven't happened yet. And you don't want them to happen. That future is the future I came back to prevent. You see, Zero...in that time you were my friend. Not only my friend, but X's and Axl's...and everyone's! You were so kind and strong, and you always did what you thought was right.

"But the problem is, you're not in control of yourself. You're a slave to Dr. Wily. In that future, before you even able to think for yourself, you spread a virus to a reploid - er, robot, named Sigma. You in turn were reprogrammed into a hero and a good friend, but Sigma took that virus and spread it all over the world. Because of it, robots became crazed and angry, and they fought to destroy the earth. So many wars happened over the centuries all because of this virus, and in the end humanity and robotkind both died out entirely."

Roll dared to walk forward, hardly disguising her surprise that Zero just stood there and listened. "Please, Zero. I know who you really are, when all the tricks and failsafes of Wily are taken away. I know that you're kind and you're a hero. You and Mega Man X worked so hard to protect justice and stop the virus from overcoming the earth. But it was already too late and you didn't even know it. I came back because I know that's not the future you want, Zero. You were so burdened all the time by the guilt of what you had done. You tried to hide it, but I could see it all the same. I have to help you, Zero."

The girl-bot stopped where she was, drawing in a deep breath. Saying this pained her more than she realized. Though this Zero hadn't shown himself to be anything like the future Zero, Roll could hardly help her grief.

"You had friends, Zero, and you had freedom. Everyone admired you so much." Roll felt as though tears would pour from her eyes at any moment. "Please, Zero, let me help you. My family can save you from the virus so that that future never happens, and that for once you can be happy. You can live without fear or regret. But if you don't...I...I have to destroy you."

Roll activated her energy sword, and Zero made no move to strike. He observed this action silently, making Roll a little unsure how to proceed. She hoped that her training was enough, and that she looked pitiful enough to trick Zero. Roll, however, felt no fear even now. She told herself that this was the reason she'd been sent back to the past in the first place, and that of course she would win. If no one else could, she could. It was fate. She lifted her sword.

"So, Zero...what is your answer?"

It suddenly occured to Roll that Zero might not be able to talk. Wily might have stunted him so that he couldn't talk back or communicate with good guys, just in case he decided to rebel-

"You must be insane."

Roll startled, woken from her thoughts. Zero very well could speak, and now that Roll was finished he actually had an expression on his face other than evil glee. Instead it was disruntled incredulity.

"So I'm supposed to watch those false memories and just believe you're telling the truth?" he said, lifting his beam saber. "That's a nice trick, Light-bot. It's so sweet you tried. You're still my enemy. Thanks for coming, though. It'll be a lot easier to get your brother here with you dead. Then I can hack into his mind and use it to find Mega Man X. _ Good job_."

Roll very nearly quailed of the unfamiliar sharpness of his voice, but she forced herself to stand there, gritting her teeth. "I...I'll have to fight you!"

"I'm so scared." Zero grinned and readied himself to charge. "Care to dance, sweetheart?"

Roll didn't reply. She just forced her battle A.I. to get into place for the plan, and focused on what she needed to do next.

_Good, he underestimates me. _she thought. _I tricked Zero before with this move, but now it's not just a training session. I can do this! Bass, I'll make you proud!_

Zero charged. Roll's little beam sword defiantly clashed against the Z saber, the little red thing looking remarkably adorable compared to Zero's mighty weapon. She parried his strikes with surprising grace, just as Bass taught her in that other, desperate timeline.

_Alright, and now the turn!_

Roll swung around, kicking Zero in the back of the knee to knock him over. Next she was to snatch up his saber, then hold both it and her own weapon to his neck. Roll loved her family more than she loved Zero, and she knew in her heart that she could slice his head off without regret. She was Zero's friend, and she knew that the good and kind Zero would rather die than cause the future that Roll knew awaited them all.

That, of course, is what Roll _should_ have done. But as she kicked Zero's knee out, something went wrong. She felt her power level flunctuating, and her systems started fading out simultaneously. She looked down, only to see Zero's green saber embedded in her gut. She had enough hearing left to hear Mega Man's scream. The last thing she saw was Mega Man, and Zero tore his saber from her and dashed off to fight the bomber.

"Rock..."

Roll collapsed into the grass, heedless of the the battle around her.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Sorry this is a mite late. I had to do a lot of rewriting. Trust me, the wait was worth it. It wasn't good enough in the old version. We'll discuss this more in the Bonus Features.

- I know there are those who will want to criticize my use of the military in the first segment. Feel free to do so, but if anything doesn't make sense, figure that this is the work of a different military. Or the branch of the military you don't like. ;)

Character profiles!

=====Alia

**"Hailing frequencies open!"**

Good point: Focused

Bad point: Doubtful

Likes: Fashion

Dislikes: Violence

That's right, Alia doesn't like violence. That, however, doesn't stop her from doing her job. She is the consummate professional, and most of the time is able to keep her fears from interfering with her work. Very few things are able to shake her resolution. Mostly these involve the loss of friends. Alia holds her friends very close to her heart, and casualties break her heart. She has become very strong emotionally over the years, and it's gotten to the point where she doesn't believe anything can shake her.

Alia was created by Professor Gerald Rudenbaker, a family man with three boys and a baby girl named Ruby. This little girl was born several years after the youngest boy, and she was the delight of Gerald's eyes. Rudenbaker created Alia's first edition to give the girl a playmate, as his scientific lifestyle kept him moving from one town to another. Because robots couldn't grow up like human children, Rudenbaker later on created a second version of Alia (but with the same personality A.I.) that remained her friend once Alia grew out of childhood.

This version of Alia was a lot more sensitive than the current one. She delighted in helping Ruby Rudenbaker with schoolwork or going shopping. One day, however, a gang of Mavericks attacked the Rudenbaker home. Ruby was killed, and the grief of it nearly drove Alia insane. Gerald wasn't exactly in his right might either, and from that day onward was a less happy man. Alia took Ruby's place in his heart, and for her sake he gave Alia a more professional nature. He didn't change Alia too much, but he knew he had to make Alia stronger if she was going to live in a world with Mavericks in it. Alia wanted to give Ruby some sort of legacy, so she asked Gerald if she could join the reploid research industry, to which Gerald said yes. She stayed with her family for one full year while he upgraded her into a research model.

Alia was pretty good at her job, though part of her felt like it wasn't quite right for her. All the same, Alia worked hard and learned a lot. She developed a love of learning how things work, and ended up being very close friends with the reploid Gate. Contrary to popular opinion, Alia was not interested in him romantically. She might have been, if Gate didn't have these little "quirks" in his personality. For a while it was nothing but the odd comment, but later he began to obsess compulsively over his work. Eventually his experiments grew so dangerous that the reploids he created had to be destroyed.

Alia participated in this, though at the time she regretted it and wished that some better option would have been available. Post X6, she feels a little better about it. In any case, the incident both scared Alia away from the organization she worked for and got her interested in quelling rebellious reploids. She left her research to join the Maverick Hunters, undergoing one last upgrade from Professor Rudenbaker to adapt to the military environment.

Since then, Alia has remained very calm about her past and tries not to let it interfere with her future. She basically considers herself Gerald's daughter, more for his sake than her own. She tried her best to be the daughter he lost, and Gerald was always very proud of her. Gerald died of natural causes shortly after MMX7, but Alia remains in contact with her "mother" and "brothers". From time to time Alia leaves the Hunters to take care of her mother, who lives in a nursing home. Most of the Hunters don't know that Alia can bake a mean shepherd's pie, and frequently does so for Mrs. Rudenbaker.

Alia does have a mild crush on X, but prefers to keep this to herself out of professionality. Considering that they're robots, she doesn't think a romance could be anything better than what she already has: a job where she gets to spend lots of time with him. X, being somewhat of a dork, doesn't really notice this crush. He does like hanging out with her, and Alia figures this is just as well. Alia is particularly career-minded, especially since her job is so important to society.

Of the three main navigators, Alia is the most motherly. This sometimes gets on Pallette's and Layer's nerves, but it's usually not a big deal. The girls hang out together when they can, but usually one or more of them is on duty so the three are almost never together at the same time, unless they're at work. It was Pallette's idea that Alia change her design after MM7, and Alia liked the idea. Mainly she wanted a body that could actually wear human clothes and thus show the Maverick Hunters that she really does have a sense of style.

=====Excelsior Signas

**"How can we solve this problem?"**

Good point: Calm

Bad point: Too serious

Likes: Peaceful talks

Dislikes: Evil

Nope. I totally did not just make up that first name. No way. His creator gave it to him. Uh huh. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. Dr. Cain prefered to give first names to the robots he was most proud of. Dr. Cain was responsible for the mass production of a lot of reploids, but robots like Signas are single editions. Notedly, Signas does not use his first name, and is uncomfortable when the people who know it use it. Of the Maverick Hunters, only X, Alia, and Zero know. Sigma also knows it, but he never uses it. He too has a first name he hates, and he'd rather not provoke Signas into saying what it is.

Signas was completed shortly before MMX3 as one of Dr. Cain's side projects. Upset over the loss of Sigma to the Maverick Virus, Dr. Cain decided to persue a new robot, one that Cain hoped had a personality that would make it harder for him to become a Maverick. Most Mavericks are emotional and prone to bursts of anger, so Signas thus became a calm thinker. There is no evidence this actually keeps Signas from getting the virus, but the Maverick Hunters appreciate Signas' levelheadedness anyway.

It took several years for Signas to be completed, as he was a personal project intended to be nothing more than a companion and mechanical assistant to Dr. Cain. Signas ended up taking care of Dr. Cain during his last years, and through his age-related illnesses. Cain retired from the Maverick Hunters after MMX3, intending to drop out of mainstream mechanics and spend his retirement years being a small town repairman and getting lots of fishing done. He was able to do this for a while, but ended up passing away from natural causes shortly after the MMX4 incident.

X, in the meantime, was pretty shaken by the betrayal of Repliforce, and the Maverick Hunters felt more than ever the leadership void that Dr. Cain created when he retired. Signas had nothing better to do, so he took on the job for himself. In the beginning he was merely an administrative worker, just sorting out logistics and shuffling paperwork. However, his calm, examining nature often put him in the position of solving Hunter disputes. Signas often counseled Zero, who was upset and unsettled about the loss of Iris. Zero was always very grateful to him. Pretty soon it was all too obvious that Signas should take charge of the entire organization, just in time for MMX5.

Signas often wonders if he could have done something else with his life back when he was in the position to make that choice. Whenever he wonders this, he shrugs. What other job would be better suited for a workaholic such as himself? Signas feels very useful and comfortable with the Maverick Hunters, so much so that he doesn't really view it as a job, and thus doesn't really have any hobbies. He's a bit fond of fishing, although since he doesn't eat he doesn't see the point of it anymore.

Signas knew he was a replacement for Sigma, and was pretty much told so by Dr. Cain. He doesn't know how to feel about this. Cain used to tell him so many stories of the reploid Sigma used to be, and how heroic he was. Signas regrets never having met the good Sigma, and takes Sigma's evil actions very personally. He hates evil, and views his few years with Dr. Cain, fixing boats and fishing, as the best of his life. Anyone who gets to know Signas and see behind his stoic exterior knows that he is very kind, and simply wants everyone to live in as much happiness as possible. Sigma can't stand him, often wondering why Dr. Cain replaced him with a robot like that.


	24. Destruction

Proto Man's teleported in. He materialized in the middle of the city, about two blocks down from the REA Headquarters in Sacremento. Proto Man didn't run away, surprising himself almost as much as Bass when the latter's teleport beam landed. The red and grey robot just stared up at the sky, not noticing as impatient, Californian passerby dodged around him.

"Try not to block the whole sidewalk." Bass scoffed. "Why are we out here instead of at the REA building?"

"It's my funeral, Bass." Proto Man said, still calmly looking out at the darkening sky. "I'm not in a hurry."

All the same, Blues didn't particularly feel like irking Bass. He'd been avoiding this for far longer than anyone expected, and it was high time to get it over with. Proto Man peered over his shoulder to see that Bass' grumpy expression agreed with his thoughts.

Proto Man stifled a sigh. "Let's get going."

Blues hoped Bass didn't expect him to go with a fast pace, but as irritated as Bass was, he didn't hurry Proto Man along. Proto Man hadn't seen the fight between him and Zero, but he guessed that Bass had dark thoughts of his own. It was bad enough that Bass was defeated, and now he was wandering around Sacramento with dented armor and no helmet. Proto Man, however, was grumpy himself, and he let all thought of the dark robot behind him drop out of his mind. As impossible as it was, he tried to enjoy Sacramento. It was a busy evening as ever, despite the fact that every cafe or bar they passed was full of people staring at the huge TVs blaring out the lastest news of Monstropolis.

He didn't bother looking. He wasn't interested in watching Zero tear something else up. Part of Proto Man wondered if there was some intelligent way to defeat Zero - some way that didn't involve being ridiculously powerful. Proto Man had seen Zero at work, and though Blues was afraid of nothing he found himself shuddering. No, Blues himself was hopeless against Zero.

The sound of the news programs made it hard for Proto Man to put it out of his mind, but he was always well in control of himself. Besides, they were headed away from the TVs and their unhappy announcements into the deepest part of downtown Sacramento, where the skyscrapers held multifarious businesses up in the air. The foot traffic tapered off here, and Proto Man and Bass were able to freely walk without dodging robots or wayward humans looking for clubs. Other than the occasional smoker or two lingering outside of a building, there didn't seem to be many humans at all. It was long past six, so they had all probably either gone home from work or settled into their office for the night to get something extra done. Proto Man found himself wishing it was daytime. It would be nice to see the city alive and operating normally, with the fresh grocer's open and the children at play in the parks.

_That's right...it's the school year still and the farmer's market is at least five blocks from here. _the loner robot mused. _Hm._

As much as he just wanted to absorb the pleasant surroundings and enjoy his last moments of being a free robot (as free as he could be with a cranky robot behind him), the truth wasn't going to go away. This was the last walk of his life. In a few minutes, he would be at the REA building and in police custody. That was the lucky part of being a robot. He didn't have to be activated to receive his sentence. They would simply shut him down, then wipe out his memory for good. Either it would be deletion, or else just a memory dump and a new start.

Proto Man thought he might prefer all out deletion. As nice it would be to live, and as much as Mega Man would like that, Blues wasn't happy about the whole idea of starting over. After all, it was because of his original naiivety and foolishness that his life had gone so wrong. It would feel weird to go back to Light Laboratories as a completely blank robot, though he guessed that since he didn't have his memories he wouldn't feel so strange about it then. Of course, his siblings would have to lie to him about his past, and if he ever saw Leila again, he might attempt to talk to her and try to ask why seeing him made her so upset.

He didn't want to think about Leila, and he forced her out of his mind. It was no good. All he wanted was to get in a decent apology, but that wasn't going to happen. And of course, she wasn't the only victim of his activities. How many times had he spied for Wily? Brought Wily the information he needed to attack the world where it was the most vulnerable? In fact, rescuing Kalinka hadn't been heroism on his part at all, no matter how much Rock tried to tell him it was afterward. At the start of that scheme, Proto Man himself had infiltrated Cassock's lab and installed a virus on Pharoah Man. He wasn't the one that kidnapped Kalinka, but he was a definite accessory. He never felt the need to confess this to Dr. Cassock. It wasn't as if he murdered Dr. Cossack and then was friends with an unknowing Kalinka.

Proto Man gritted his teeth. _I'm not going to think about her...I'm not going to think about her..._

It didn't work. While Leila's face faded from his mental view, the hurt didn't go away. It felt strange. The emotion running around in his head left Proto Man in a daze, allowing the sights and sounds around him to hypnotize him into being resolute. This was what was required of him now. It was time to be punished for his crimes, and...

_That better not be who I think it is._

Proto Man couldn't resist a growl. It was true, unfortunately. It was indeed a tall, goateed man with black hair shot up with a couple of grey streaks in the sides and down his chin. This man was headed straight for the both of them, looking Proto Man right in the eye.

Blues' reaction hadn't gone unnoticed, and Bass stepped up. "So who's that guy?"

"Well, well, well." the approach of the human stopped Proto Man from answering - he was too busy being grumpy to talk in any case. "Looks like Bass over here finally caught you, kid. I did try to warn you."

Proto Man groaned audibly. His aggravation came out in the form of a hasty introduction, every word tinged by his sheer loathing for those surrounding him.

"Bass, meet Senator Harry Briggs." Proto Man's voice oozed out of him.

"Don't sound so cheerful." Briggs winked at Blues. "Anyways, nice to meet you for once."

Even Brigg's jolly mood tempered a bit. The gloom both robots exuded made his usual cheer impossible, and he wasn't exactly in his happiest mood either. Bass himself had gotten a little darker; though he shook the hand offered to him, he wasn't sure he liked this person.

"So this is the guy you wanted to tell Rock?" Bass eyed his captive. "Why?"

"He's one of the earliest agents of the REA, and knew me in my youngest days." It was easy to see that Proto Man was glaring at Briggs even through his visor. "Though I'm not entirely sure why he's bothering to show himself now."

"The REA tracked your teleport code." Briggs answered, sticking his rather too big hands casually in his pockets. "They decided to send me."

"Not armed guards?" Bass asked with contempt. "One human's enough to deal with this 'dangerous' threat?"

"Guards he'd escape from." Briggs managed a half grin at the loner robot. "Blues here'd never shoot his Uncle Harry."

Bass bit his lip, almost snorting at that nickname. Proto Man's shoulders tensed tightly, his mental power barely keeping his emotions under control. Even the not so perceptive Bass could guess exactly what kind of person Briggs was, and exactly how Proto Man felt about him. That someone would instantly assume relation...well, Bass found it only funny. He couldn't help giving Blues an ugly grin.

"Shut up, Bass." Proto Man growled at the Senator next. "Harry, if you've got any decency at all you'll leave right now. I'm not in the mood for your nonsense. Bass here won't let me escape. He'd shoot me first. Isn't that right?"

"_Hell _yes."

"See?" Proto Man darkened even further; Bass didn't have to be _that_ enthusiastic. "There you go. Now leave me alone."

Harry shook his head, coming alongside Proto Man. "Not going to happen, kid. I've got my orders. Come on, they're waiting."

Proto Man wanted to protest, but he found himself pushed from behind by a black and gold buster. He turned his head to the right barely enough to see Bass, the minimal amusement now gone from the latter's face. Forte was not a patient robot. With a heavy sigh, Proto Man began walking again. Though Bass was polite enough to walk behind him, Harry's firm pace insisted that he would not be leave the loner robot to his bleak and futile thoughts.

"I wanted to talk to you before they deleted you." Harry said. "Look, you shouldn't have confessed. I've been in the Senate supporting you for almost as long as you've been around, and if you hadn't said anything I could have gotten you a full pardon. I was unbelievably close, too, then you go and screw it up. I've always liked you, kid. You're better than this."

Proto Man was only mildly tempted to answer. He kept both his gaze and his ugly frown both focused on the pavement. Why did this man have to bother him? How could he possibly believe that it was okay to let Leila go on being a blissful fan, unaware of what Blues had done? Telling her was cruel, but not telling was crueler. It didn't matter anymore anyway. This was Blues' decision, and beyond all debate he had made his choice. If Harry had a problem with it, too bad.

Of course, Briggs was not a man of subtlety. Simply being silent didn't make the man follow suit. In fact, it produced the opposite effect. Proto Man braced himself, readying his wobbly emotional cortex for the onslaught of the amazing Man-That-Would-Never-Shut-Up. Fitting to expectations, Briggs spoke again. What threw Proto Man off was his tone. For once Briggs abandoned his insistence for calm and sympathy. The man fidgeted uncomfortably, but continued nonetheless.

"Look, Blues," Briggs stiffened his jaw a moment. "I feel like some of this might be my fault. Back when you were built, I wasn't exactly the best guy in the world. I was...patronizing. I treated you like a child-"

"I _was _a child." Proto Man snapped. "I thought that because I was a robot I could escape that fact. I _did_ need supervision, and I _was _dangerous. All the power of a soldier under the sway of the understanding of a simple child. It's my fault that I couldn't understand that, and everything I've done is my fault too. Now just leave me alone! I'm tired of your antics, so you can stop!"

Proto Man's head bobbed back down again. Briggs was only somber as he looked down at his robot friend. He placed a hand on Proto Man's shoulder, stopping him. Proto Man barely moved his chin upwards, not entirely certain why he bothered looking up at the persistant human.

"You first."

With that, Harry let go. Blues shuffled forward again, going a little faster as they passed under the brightly lit entrance to a convenience store and the attendant that was sure to be staring at him. Proto Man gave a heavy sigh, wishing he was strong enough to avoid adopting the same, guarded persona he always did around Briggs.

_Harry's that sort of person that notices things without anyone that thinking he does. _Calming, Proto Man found it a little easier to walk on. _I bet he sees right through me. Why am I even arguing with him? It won't do any good._

"Well..." Blues said, a little late for this to be a proper retort. "Soon enough I'll stop doing everything."

"A real shame." Briggs said. "Y'know, just because you do a few things wrong doesn't mean everyone has to hate you."

Proto Man's only response was a grunt. He wanted to look at the stars (as hard as that was with the lights of the city), not talk to anyone. He did feel a little relieved; somehow talking to Briggs was better than just having Bass around. Proto Man wasn't really sure why he had this preference. Briggs certainly wasn't "Uncle Harry", but as it was, it did feel like this human was the closest relative he had. Even Mega Man hadn't known him as well as the tall, aggravating senator.

It was completely dark by then, and Proto Man hadn't noticed the subtle change from evening into night. Some people liked to stare at nature scenes to create peaceful feelings, but Proto Man was in the mood for the glow of the streetlights and the hum of car engines. It was convenient he felt that way before his certain doom, as going out to visit the country certainly wasn't going to be an option. Blues found himself a bit jealous that he wasn't going to have a last meal. Food in itself wasn't appealing, but there was something nice about the tradition of it all. He wondered if criminal robots had any sort of similar tradition.

The rest of the walk passed by without Proto Man noticing. He dwelt in his own thoughts, almost enjoying the bitter tang of his imminent destruction. Somehow it had an artistic feel to it, to finally be giving up one's life and paying one's dues. It was right. It was from this sort of thinking that turning the corner immediately snatched him out of. All the "art" of it fled away in an instant.

There it was: REA headquarters for Sacramento, California, only one street-crossing away. The armed guards in their grey and green uniforms were waiting in front of the massive building, and they lifted their heads at the oncoming trio. Some of them even lifted their weapons, though their captain waved the guns down.

It didn't make a difference. Proto Man saw them and his immediate impulse was to teleport away before it was too late. Before he even knew what was going on, Blues activated his teleport initializers. They tugged and they tugged, but his proximity alert wouldn't let Proto Man disappear.

_Why can't I escape?_

Proto Man looked up to find that Bass had hold of his arm. The metal in his arm creaked for mercy, it was held so tight. The evil way Bass' blood red eyes threatened made it very clear that Proto Man wasn't going anywhere.

He let out a sigh. It was as much one of relief as of forfeit; Proto Man didn't want to be afraid anymore. This was what he deserved, and he had no right to object as Bass tugged him across the road, not for a second letting go of Proto Man's arm. Briggs went on ahead of them both, greeting a man who was apparently the highest ranking of the guards. Proto Man just let himself be ushered over without a word, grateful that robots didn't have to be read Miranda rights. Bass led him over to the REA men, and they latched Proto Man's arms into the robot handcuffs. It was the worst sound in the world as the two halves clicked together, but still Blues maintained his silence.

"I'm sorry, kid." Briggs put his arm on Blues' shoulder. "I'm really sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am." Proto Man said. "Watch out for my brother. Tell him...tell him..."

But Proto Man couldn't think of anything proper. His emotion threatened to burst him, but it found no outlet. Proto Man simply didn't have the language to explain what he felt. Somehow, however, as he looked up at Harry, he knew that his "uncle" did. Briggs was the amazing Man-Who-Would-Never-Shut-Up, as his kind face explained without saying. Of course he would have something adequate to tell Mega Man.

"I guess I'm ready." Proto Man told the guards around him. "Let's go."

"WHAT?" Bass practically screamed. "_Roll_ went to go fight Zero? Is she crazy or something?"

But that was exactly Auto said into Bass' comm. Bass' eyes went automatically to Proto Man, whose mouth hung open at the news. Proto Man stared at Bass, the begging of his eyes made no less clear for being covered by his shades.

"Damn it!" Bass snapped. "GRRR! Alright, REA guys, don't hate me for this..."

With that, Bass snatched Proto Man out of the guards' grip, and with the help of the psycho pulse, he snapped off the handcuffs. Before anything could be done about it, both robots were gone.

"Well," Harry Briggs reached into coat pocket and pulled out his cigarettes. "I can't say I blame them. Anyone want a smoke?"

Nobody did. The guards began angrily making calls on their cell phones, telling their authorities and Bass' ethics officer exactly what was going on. They rushed around, ignoring the Senator as they each fearfully hoped that they weren't going to get in trouble. Briggs made a note to speak to Reyes. He'd make the ethics agent see things his way. Harry put a cigarette to his lips and fished out his lighter, grinning at the over-anxious REA people.

"You guys really need to chill out." Briggs said, though no one was listening. He grinned as he blew a puff of smoke into the night. "Stress'll take years off your life."

-t-

In that park - that battlefield - Mega Man teleported in, fearing the worst. He materialized in time to see that the worst had come true. Not only was his sister really and truly fighting the most vile creation of Dr. Albert Wily, Zero was now in control of the fight, and he made the most of it. His beam saber jammed clear through Roll's torso.

"NOOOOO!" Mega Man screamed. "ROLL!"

This scream immediately caught Zero's attention. He snapped his head directly toward Mega Man, grinning that his enemy finally had come. His saber was still embedded in Roll's chest, so Zero flicked it through her side, tearing the gap in her stomach even wider. The lifeless girl-bot collapsed to the ground. Zero forgot her instantly. Instead he dashed toward Mega Man, his saber out and ready to make blue metal mincemeat out of the bomber.

A direct attack wasn't going to work. Mega Man jumped over Zero, barely making it past the slashing saber. He turned and let loose a half-charged shot, which didn't seem to have too much affect on Zero. The blonde didn't even flinch as the hot plasma smacked him in the back. His eyes narrowed and he let out a growl, and thus began the hardest fight of Mega Man's life.

For once, Mega Man was thankful for his sordid history with Bass. Every fight with the dark robot in the enemy days was a fight for his life, and this one with Zero was just the same. Though it would have been more helpful if Bass had been a sword fighter. And Rock had no clue how to stop Zero from swinging his own shots back at him. Still, Mega Man was ready for every double jump and every dash. Fighting with Zero was not a joke, as the scorched grass and sliced up swingset proved. Thankfully they fought in the park, where all present humans had long scattered, and only the trees would suffer.

But of course Mega Man wasn't thinking about the trees, though he ducked through them to avoid Zero's buster.

_This guy is tough! _Mega Man grimaced, peeking out from the side of an oak. _Maybe some of these Cain weapons will help. I've got the power bullet, the epic win, and oh, I've got the echelon - oh crap!_

He'd waited too long. Zero slashed through the aged oak as if it were a yearling, and if Mega Man were two seconds slower, it would be the same fate for his head. Zero jumped over the falling log. Rock barely whipped out the power bullet just in time to shoot Zero clear in the face and knock him off his feet. As the red robot returned to his feet, only more dirty and angry for the attack, Mega Man charged up the power bullet and fired. The huge homing bullet that targeted Zero did no more than give Mega Man more time to run off. Even worse, the bullet didn't so much as hit Zero - he was ready this time. Rock was running for his life; he didn't look back to see Zero slash it to bits.

_Not the power bullet!_ Mega Man turned dark blue and started charging the epic win. _If this doesn't work..._

His battle A.I. processed furiously. The data gave him options, and he chose the best. At this point Zero had given up stealth; he dashed behind Mega Man, smacking past lower branches and hopping over bushes without a flinch. Zero ran faster than Mega Man, and Mega Man knew it. With all his hope, Mega Man swung around a final time, flashing the blinding light of the epic win. He dove and rolled behind Zero as the power took effect, switching to his normal buster to damage Zero along the way.

Epic fail. Not only did the epic win do nothing noticable to Zero, but the plasma shots Mega Man fired hit the Z saber and hit Rock instead. Mega Man kept hold of his senses and jumped away, but couldn't completely dodge Zero's saber as it sliced his leg. Rock activated his ultra armor, but the damage was done. His right leg creaked dangerously, leaving him uncomfortably unstable.

Zero didn't let him get a breath. Mega Man's charged blasts couldn't be knocked back by the saber, but Zero rushed in, not for one moment letting him charge it. Mega Man wished Rush were there with his power adapter, but he had to settle for punching and kicking, all while trying to keep that awful sword from slicing him through.

In seconds, Zero ducked and turned. The flash of his saber followed him, surrounding him with an instantaneous disc of green. Again Mega Man was only barely fast enough - if getting away with only damage to his other leg counted as fast enough. In that moment, as the gleefully evil Zero rose and kicked him to the ground, he knew that he couldn't win-

_Wait, his neck! The armor there is torn! _Mega Man gasped. _He's been fighting so long - he couldn't avoid getting damaged! _

Too little, too late. In a minute, Zero's heavily armored foot landed slam on Rock's chest. Time passed so slow, Mega Man could count the milliseconds ticking down as Zero thrust down his saber. That is, until a teleport beam appeared behind Zero, and a black and gold robot had Zero clutched by the neck. That black and gold quickly turned to brick red as Bass activated the echelon heatshock, most powerful of the Cain weapons. Orange bolts of lightning set Zero's circuit's sizzling.

"Aaaugh!"

"Rock, run you idiot!" Bass snarled. "I've got him!"

That was a lie. Even in the midst of the attack, Zero grabbed Bass by his pale blonde hair and pulled him off his back. Black bullets saved Bass from anything worse. No sooner than he hit the ground and the long range attack of the sight cannon hit Zero right on the back. Mega Man recognised the weapon at once, and he knew who had taken it from Sight Man.

_" - Proto Man! - " _Mega Man thought he would cry with joy. _" - Aim for Zero's neck! He's weak there! - "_

That darned saber! Zero swung the black bullets back where they came from. It was a little hard, to say the least, for Proto Man to hit any part of Zero at that point. The distraction gave Bass enough time to snatch up Mega Man and dash across the park to the playground. Bass plunked Mega Man down and they both ducked as well as they could behind a plastic panda next to the playground.

"He can't deflect my fully charged shot." Mega Man gasped, clutching his power core. "If I can get the time to charge it..."

"Say no more." Bass looked out past the panda's ear and winced. "He's coming this way. Charge already."

Mega Man then realized how damaged he was. Zero had kicked the exact wrong part of his circuits, and the part that dictated his charging couldn't do much more than flash as he struggled. For his efforts, he was rewarded with falling over.

"That stupid Proto Man!" Bass snarled, keeping an eye out on Zero. "He's not distracting the guy enough! Come on!"

Before he knew it, Bass snatched Mega Man up, holding him by the waist. He jumped out from behind the panda, firing his own plasma at his "brother". Zero was instantly frustrated; with only one sword, he could only block one of his enemies at a time. Zero was smart, though. He knew who the real enemy was. He ran towards Bass and Mega Man, dodging the sight cannon and sending the Bass buster pellets careening away - not all of them were fast enough to get past the Z saber.

"Hurry up, Rock!"

"I...I'm trying!"

Mega Man grit his teeth, forcing himself to pulse with power. His power core burned twice as hot as it struggled against the inadequate circuitry. Screaming warnings alerted in Mega's mind, shouting that he was overheating. Mega Man ignored it. Overheating was nothing compared to the furious robot bearing down on them.

Proto Man's teleport landed in front of them, stopping the wave of Bass' deflected hits from meeting their mark. Not wasting time with a Cain power, Proto Man fired his normal buster into the fray, hoping it would hassle Zero long enough.

"I scanned him, Rock." Proto Man called back without looking. "One shot should do it!"

Mega Man summoned all his strength, diverting all his power to his weapon. Finally, the hum and glow of his aura signalled that the charged shot was ready - not a moment too soon. As he lifted his arm to aim, silently demanding his targetting systems keep the enemy in focus, Zero's saber slammed into Proto Man's shield. Again it hit, putting another deep dent even in the mettool grade protoshield, and seconds later Zero shoved it aside, ready to slice Proto Man in half.

"ZERO!" Mega Man screamed.

His Mega buster exploded with light and plasma, sending both hurtling towards the pony-tailed robot. The pellet smacked into Zero, instantly blinding everyone in a massive explosion. Sensors scrambled, hearing faded, and the sheer force of the explosion sent all three hero-bots flying. Even as the brightness subsided, dirt and metal still flew in all directions, confusing everything and leaving it in a cloud of dusty brown.

Bass was the first to recover. Once the cloud of dirt cleared out, he found himself lying at the base of a merry-go-round, having crashed flat on his back right onto it. He broke clean through the metal; it wasn't going to spin any time soon. The jagged, torn edges of it impaled both Bass and the dirt below him. He coughed out some dirt, wishing he'd had his armor up to par before teleporting in. It was then he saw the bottow of Rock's foot. It was higher up on the other side of the now tilted merry-go-round, hanging limp on the edge down at him.

"Hey Rock, Rock." Bass kicked at it. "You're not dead, are you?"

"Blues!" Mega Man suddenly called away, out of sight far to Bass' left. "Bass! Are you both alright?"

Bass blinked, a little stunned. "Um, yeah! Hey Rock, I found your leg!"

"Oh...good! Let me know if you see the other one! Blues, Blues! Where are you?"

"I'm...here..." Blues' voice cracked, and he spoke with the heavings of an old man. He was likewise out of sight, but this time some yards behind. "I think...I think...I could use...some upgrades..."

"Did we get him?" Bass started prying himself from the wrecked plaything. It wasn't an easy task, and his efforts scratched some of the paint from his armor. "Ugh...please tell me he's dead."

"Well, he's not attacking us." Mega Man wearily answered. "That's something."

"Lucky us."

Mega Man lay under a half torn swing, the shredded rubber seating scattered around him. Mega Man looked down as his missing legs and sighed with relief. They were gone below the thigh, but he'd suffered worse over the years. He could even drag himself into a sitting position. Mega Man sighed with relief. If Zero was alive, nothing would be left of them. That was for sure.

The sound of a teleport got everyone's attention. Mega Man turned over to the edge of the play area, right outside the ridge of the wooden partition, where Crystal Bot stood. She paid no attention to him, and not even her boss. Instead the girl-bot stood over a headless Zero, who lay limp in the grassy field. Carbon scoring blackened much of Zero's red armor, and Crystal poked at him uncertainly with her foot as she examined him.

"Hey Crystal," Mega Man called out. "What's the damage?"

"Not that much." Crystal Bot lifted Zero's head by the ponytail, causing Mega Man to shudder. "What you did was destroy a weak binding between his head and neck. That's all."

"What caused that explosion then?"

"Fortenium leak." she answered, putting down the head. "I'm pretty sure, anyway. The system Zero has in place kept the leak from being serious by closing it up the instant internal pressure was lost. His systems look really efficient. Heh, any technician worth their salt could fix this guy up in ten minutes. Hmm..."

With that, Crystal Bot began to rummage around. She flipped Zero's body over, then pulled out her screwdriver and started fussing with his neck.

"What are you doing?" Mega Man gasped. "Stop!"

"Huh? Stop what? I'm pulling off his neck binding structure." True to her word, a scornful Crystal Bot pulled the metal support ring up for Mega Man to see, then smashed it in her hands. "_Aigoo_, Rock, I'm just trying to make sure no one can fix him."

"Oh, I'm sorry...I just thought the virus might act up again."

"The virus was quarantined, Rock." Crystal rolled her eyes. "Anyway, he's out of commission for now. I'll let the REA deal with the body. You're not too badly damaged, are you?"

"Well, it's mainly just the legs," he explained, starting to scoot himself out from under the swingset. "But I have a feeling when my damage report is complete I'm going to have a lot more to complain about."

By this time, Bass was up on his legs, a little unsteady but well enough to walk over and inspect the damage to Zero. In fact, he seemed hardly the worse for wear. Definitely more scratched up from the impact with the merry-go-round, but that was more or less superficial. Crystal grinned at him.

"And of course my Forte-kun is fine."

"Yeah, I feel pretty good." Bass ran a quick scan of his systems. "Not too bad for that fight. Hell, you weren't kidding about Zero. He looks like he could just get up and fight without his head."

As if suspicious that this was going to happen, Bass pulled the Z saber out of Zero's hand - which even then firmly clasped it. Crystal Bot no longer paid much attention to her boss. She let him play around with the saber without objection, though she did giggle to see him swing it - it was too large for him. However, it was now too late to ignore the one that troubled her the most. She had to help him. Crystal Bot leaned over Proto Man, most of whose pieces lay next to the teeter-totter. Crystal kicked a lost arm closer to the rest of his beaten and battered body. The blast had impacted against him the most, and the loss of several systems alerted him that his circuits were loose.

"Hey Proto-kun." she said quietly. "You're not too badly damaged. I think I can put you back together."

Blues was tempted to say nothing, but the poor girl-bot looked so pitiful. "That...might not...be necessary..."

Crystal Bot's eyebrows pinched together in confusion. "What do you mean? I'm not going to leave you like this!"

Apparently she was. Proto Man slowly lifted a finger, barely able to raise his hand high enough to point past the girl-bot. There, rapidly approaching the group, were two cop-bots. They went at a fast pace, and one of them carried a stretcher over his shoulder, the metal grid large enough to hold a human-sized machine. Crystal's hands went up to her mouth, but there was nothing she could do to stop the cop-bots from laying the stretcher down and placing Proto Man's wrecked body on it. Crystal could only gather any smaller pieces of the loner-bot and place them beside him. One of the cop-bots flipped a switch on their stretcher, and it hummed with magnetic energy as it held Proto Man and prevented his parts from scattering.

Mega Man started getting frantic. His arms were locking up, and he couldn't scoot all the way. The fighting with Zero waited until that moment to show itself - his power core was burning weird, and his abdominal joints were all banged up. He cried weakly for his brother.

"Blues...Blues!"

The cop-bots looked at each other, but they needed no urging. Mega Man was the hero of Monstropolis. They could delay their trip to the police station a minute. Proto Man felt his heart sink. He couldn't face his brother again, but the cop-bots were already on their way. They lowered the stretcher down, and Mega Man reached out his hand to his brother. Proto Man hesitated, his shame still too much. All the same, he reached out for his brother, and clasped Mega Man's hand for the last time.

"I...I'm sorry..." Proto Man managed. It was more than just CPU errors that restrained Proto Man's voice. "I'm...so sorry..."

Mega Man said nothing. He tried to smile, but it was so hard to when this was his last chance to see his older brother. All he could do was clasp Proto Man's hand tighter, and Proto Man understood. There was nothing more that needed to be said.

"We've got to go." One of the cop-bots said uncomfortably.

The brothers let go, and off went the world's oldest robot. Mega Man stared out into the distance as the robots bearing Proto Man disappeared into an armored truck, though Proto Man did not look back. Mega Man didn't stop staring even after the truck drove away, and his heart with it. He started to glitch painfully, his emotion distorting the already uncertain workings of his mind. He didn't care. His brother was gone.

"Forte!" Crystal Bot shrieked.

Mega Man snapped around to see Bass collapse to his knees. Crystal Bot ran up to him, her scanners working as hard as they could to figure out what was wrong with him. She gasped, biting her lip as she directed him to lay on the ground.

"Ew, ew, ew..." the girl-bot immediately started removing the aluminoid skin layer of Bass' neck. _" - Police, maintain human quarantine on Monstropolis Main Park. Do not allow humans this way. - "_

"Ugh..." Bass groaned. Her transmission wasn't encoded so he heard everything. "What's wrong? Zero barely touched me."

"Hush you." Crystal Bot's shaky voice was only marginally comforting, and that little comfort was ruined by the frantic way she worked on his innards. "The shockwave of the explosion had a little bit too much affect on you...nothing to fear, nothing to fear..."

Bass was in too much of a fog, but Mega Man was alert. He saw the fear in her eyes as the poor tech-bot scrambled to fix something. Mega Man tried to force himself to scoot closer, but his arms wouldn't take him there. After a little bit, Crystal Bot seemed to relax slightly.

"What's wrong with me?" Bass croaked. "I feel...weak..."

A growl came out as he forced out the last word, but Crystal Bot immediately shook her head, and her voice took on a soothing quality. "No, no, Forte-kun. It's alright. You're going to be just fine. Relax. I'm going to shut you down now, and when you wake up, everything will be fine."

"Um...okay..."

Crystal gently reached over to his neck and powered him down. Glitching softly, she reached up and shut his still open eyes, then sat there staring into space. Mega Man saw this motion and winced.

"Crystal? Why did you shut his eyes like that? It looks like what someone would do if a person...died."

Crystal Bot turned to him, her face so crumpled in sadness that not even tears could have made it look more depressing. Her glitches grew stronger, and she shook. It took her a minute to finally speak.

"Fortenium, when it's contained, has an estimated potential half-life of more than 400,000 years. Exposed bassnium has a half-life of _two minutes_." Crystal Bot sobbed. "He's been leaking for five minutes, and I don't know how to make more..."

She was done. Crystal Bot crumpled up and wept into Bass' shoulder, shaking as the powerful emotional glitches took over. Mega Man paled, beginning to feel sick. It was bad enough he had to lose Proto Man. Losing another companion was just too much. He slumped on the ground, not having the heart to do anything but lay there and listen as Crystal Bot cried her heart out.

\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I dedicate this chapter to Proto Lawrence - I mean RedAxl - because Proto Man is blown apart and headed for deletion. Merry late Christmas, Proto fan!

- I personally figure that Zero's main weakness is Soul Body from MMX4 and X5, as that worked on him if you fought as X during the first X5 Sigma stage. He at least complained about it in the dialogue after the fight (as did X, for that matter).

- Don't worry about radiation poisoning. Auto already alerted authorities about possible radiation from Zero when he was defeated, and that's why robots showed up to get Proto Man rather than humans. Also, like she said, bassnium has a very short half-life. It's not going to be in the air for long. If you do the math, Bass' leakage results in his being at 18.75% his normal power capacity. Yikes.

- For the record, it was Shade Man who kidnapped Kalinka, and that's why Shade Man was captured and able to work for a haunted house before the events of MM7.

Character profiles!

=====Layer

**"Ready to go, Zero?"**

Good point: Loyal

Bad point: Too inward

Likes: Being accepted

Dislikes: Loud people

Layer is sort of a shy robot. It's mostly due to her past. Originally, Layer was built to be a criminal hacker robot. With the advent of the Maverick virus, a lot of people during the X series forgot that regular crime causes problems too. A gang of crime lords built Layer, and she did things like hacking into bank records and steal expensive jewelry. Eventually, however, Layer was caught. Ironically enough, it was Zero that caught her. It was one of Zero's first acts after the X6 incident, and Layer spent the events of X7 being reprogrammed. Only one of the crime lords responsible for her construction was ever caught, mainly because the others were able to deny their involvement and get away with it. The captured one was trying to use Layer to steal money from a football team and didn't plan on sharing it, making it a lot easier for the record tracking to narrow down suspects.

In any case, Layer then became the property of Maverick Hunters, as she had no lawful creator to return to and they wanted her debt to society paid out somehow. Thus she was reprogrammed into a good robot. Her personality changed significantly, and most of her unlawful personality aspects were whittled away. Like most captured robots, Layer turned out to be a moderately quiet individual and not entirely certain of herself.

Because, in the alternate timeline, Zero was also a criminal robot reprogrammed for good, he volunteered to let her be his navigator. He figured he would be nice and allow her to find a place in society with her job. Layer was grateful, and proud to work for him during the X8 incident. She developed a crush on him, though has never had the courage to actually go and tell him. She's read his records, and she knows about Iris. She's afraid that speaking to him will cause his painful memories to rise to the surface, and she doesn't want to hurt him. She's also afraid it will drive him away.

Most of the time, Layer enjoys talking to Pallette. They hang out more often with each other than either of them do with Alia, though she is included in their trio. Pallette knows how Layer feels (Layer very much regrets telling her) and teases her about it all the time. Alia also knows, but she handles it more maturely. Layer considers Alia something of a role model, and aspires to be as successful as Alia in her job at Maverick Hunters.

=====Pallette

**"Hey, guys! I've got everything ready for you!"**

Good point: Peppy

Bad point: Annoying

Likes: Friends

Dislikes: Disorganized people

Unlike Layer or Alia, Pallette was actually designed to work for the Maverick Hunters. She was completely a little before X7, and spent a while training for her position as a navigator. Pallette early on showed proficiency in using item tracking software, so she is always on the lookout for rare minerals and anything that is of use to the Hunters. Pallette loves her job, and basically lives for it. However, she also likes to relax and have fun, so she's always moving at the same constant speed, whether on work or off. In her free time she likes to shop, watch movies, play games (she frequently plays video games with X), and just anything that involves more than one person. Pallette has attempted to learn to draw, though she only has the patience to sit still and do a couple of sketches before needing to run around and do something else.

Pallette from the get go was designed to be Axl's navigator. Signas gave the order to an engineer to build a navigator for him, but didn't specify too much what he wanted the navigator's personality to be. "Let it match Axl's personality", Signas said. The engineer took this a little too literally, producing someone that's just as excited about navigation as Axl is about shooting stuff. The engineer hoped rather naiively that Axl and Pallette would become a couple, only there were two problems: The robots were too similar in personality to need each other, and Axl's generally too immature for that sort of thing anyway. He likes his career, and Pallette likes hers.

Their relationship is nothing more than friendly. Pallette knows what the engineer intended, but she only laughs at the notion. Still, the two are good friends, when Axl isn't annoying her. Axl is number one on her list of disorganized people. He frequently makes a mess of her workstation, throwing armor and such down on the floor after each mission without thinking about who's going to clean it up. They still manage to get along, and Axl frequently comes in on his days off to help her search for treasure when she thinks she's found something. Occasionally he'll try to convince Zero or X to go, but they generally prefer to do non-Hunter related activities in their free time.

Pallette is good at her job, but sometimes she wonders if she could ever be good at other things. She very much likes fashion, and she and her friends often critique models in magazines. Pallette has never quite forgiven her creator for giving her metal slats instead of hair, no matter how much the design elevates her navigational scanners.


	25. Tasks

Mega Man figured that he was supposed to be happy. The Cain-bots were destroyed, Dr. Cain was in the hospital, Zero was defeated and Wily had no more tricks up his sleeve. Besides that, several of the Wily-bots that had helped defend Monstropolis against Zero were now free - as soon as they were all repaired again. That in itself was no small task. Monstropolis itself was a mess, and whatever aid the Wily-bots had given in the fight against Zero, they were still less of a priority than the city itself. It was the doom of these volunteers to wait until the construction of the city was well underway and looking a lot better. That wasn't going to be for a while; the mess Dr. Cain made of the shipping lanes _still _wasn't completely set right, and that was before Zero took his turn as the sword in Wily's hand against the people of Monstropolis.

Mega Man looked around the lab. Half of the repair tables, mainly those on the left side of the room, were covered in Wily-bots. These were the higher priority ones: mainly Team 6 and Cossack's errant water-bot, Dive Man. Mega Man sighed as he gazed over them, feeling very sorry for both them and himself; not only did they all have to be set in order from having to deal with Zero's wrath, but Mega Man's lab had to pay for the parts all over again to put them back in order. He sighed and decided to keep accounts about how much it cost to fix the robot masters again. They could pay him back once they returned to society and got jobs. Hopefully some of them would actually want to.

But Mega Man wasn't especially concerned with any of them at the moment. At that moment he was at the right side of the lab, standing over a robot that meant so much to him and yet had confused him so much in the past half-year. Roll lay on the repair table, looking like someone caught up in a bad dream. Her face contracted tightly, as if pained, and considering what had happened to her, Rock wasn't surprised. Thankfully enough her power core was easy to replace. It was in place under her vocalizer equipment, though Auto still had to prepare new abdominal panelling for Roll before she could be complete. Auto was in the armory, hard at work at the few armor platelets still hanging about the lab.

Rock was the one fixing her for now, and he didn't mind. He really wanted something to do to take his mind off of Proto Man and Bass. As thankful as he was that his enemies were taken away, the cost of the arrested sibling and the unrepairable ally was so very high. Mega Man spent the past three days mourning them both - well, as much of those three days as he was activated. He'd almost forgotten that he himself had to be repaired after battling Zero. Was that only three days ago? It felt so much longer.

But enough of that. He was tired of thinking about his losses. It was sort of relaxing to wire up Roll's new power core and just think about technical things. He hadn't done this kind of repair in a long time. He was surprised he still knew how, even though power cores had been upgraded several times since his repair days. But for now it was done, and Mega Man let out a mellow sigh. Roll needed to be tested, so he reached over to her neck and activated her.

The repair was sound. Roll opened her eyes, blinking as she awoke. Being alive seemed to surprise her. Roll's first expression was one of shock, but when she saw her brother, she smiled. He didn't smile back.

"Rock!" she weakly reached out for him. "Rock..."

"Roll." he said as he reached out and took her hand. "Oh, Roll...why? Why did you have to go and fight Zero?"

The happiness faded from her face, and she began a somber explanation. She felt so foolish. Telling Rock the complete truth was out of the question, but the short of it wasn't exactly a lie.

"I'm sorry, Rock." she whispered. "I just thought...well, I thought I was so weak-looking that Zero would underestimate me. I thought I could defeat him if he only saw a pathetic girl-bot and not an important fighter like you."

Mega Man crumpled a little. He rubbed his eyes, trying not to cry. "Roll...I know you want me to be safe, but this is just too much."

"I know...I'm so sorry. It's just that...I figured maybe Crystal Man knew about Zero being built and what Zero was supposed to do to the robots of the world. I thought he gave me those upgrades so that I could defeat Zero." Roll's voice quieted even further. "I'm really sorry. I feel like an idiot."

"Don't." Mega Man gently brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Roll, I want you to know something. Please just let me say this, and don't interrupt. I don't care what happens to me. I don't care how badly hurt I am when I return from a fight. It doesn't matter to me. If the world is safer because I fought, then it doesn't matter if it takes a year for me to get back into normal working order again. But if anything happens to you, it kills me. I don't care if it's only something as little as one plasma hit or getting your hand crushed. It hurts me far more than anything an enemy could do to me. I understand if you need to defend yourself, but please never put yourself in that position again. I can't stand to lose you, sis. Promise me you won't do that anymore."

Roll shivered, and she clutched her brother's hand harder. "I'm sorry, Rock. I promise I won't fight unless I have to. Please don't be angry with me..."

"I'm not angry." For the first time that day, Mega Man let his lips go upwards. "But I did remove the energy sword in your arm. You look nicer with normal hands. Besides, an energy sword isn't going to help you vacuum."

"Dork." Roll teased, letting herself smile again. "Is cleaning all I'm good for?"

"No. You're good at making life peaceful and fun. And you don't need a weapon for that."

"I understand. I'm...I'm not permanently injured, am I?"

"No, you're not too bad." Rock said, eyeing her exposed power core. "You're not complete though. Auto should have you back in order by this time tomorrow."

"Good." Roll relaxed into the repair table before she blanched. A horrifying expression enlarged her eyes. "And Zero...?"

"He's gone. The REA has him now, and he's not going to trouble anyone anymore." Rock placed her hand back on the repair table. "You just rest."

"I should have known you would defeat him." Roll beamed, proud of her brother. "You're invincible. It's just too bad...poor Zero..."

"Poor Zero?" Crystal Bot's voice joined the conversation as she joined Mega Man (but not too close) at the repair table. "What do you mean? He's a bad guy! He tore up your home town, even."

"Well, yes," Roll admitted, turning towards her friend. "But that's not his fault. He was programmed that way. Zero never had the choice. And now he's going to be punished for it. It's hard luck on him, isn't it?"

Mega Man felt a warmth grow inside of him. Not only was Roll happy, but now she was showing her kindness and mercy. It was wonderful to see her being so generous again.

"Oh, I see." Crystal turned shyly to Rock. "Is Roll-chan going to be okay?"

"She's going to be great!" Rock said, grinning merrily. "She just has some unresolved skin and support platelet issues."

"Good." Crystal Bot somehow didn't seem as happy as she could be. She did smile weakly, and she patted Roll on the head. "You're not going to be a fighter again, are you, Roll-chan?"

"Only so long as Sona-chan doesn't get another virus." Roll winked. "If you do, I..." Roll's eyes wandered to her brother's face, and she tried again. "I'll sic Mega Man on you! He's invincible, you know."

"I definitely don't want to fight him again." Crystal laughed a bit. "So I guess I better not get any more viruses!"

"Alright, that's enough for now." Mega Man reached for her neck. "Roll, I'm going to shut you down now. When you wake up you'll be alright again."

"Okay. See you guys later."

Mega Man chuckled and powered Roll down. That went well enough. Roll was feeling better and acting more like her regular self than she had...well, in months. She hadn't teased him about being invincible since Dr. Cain went to the hospital. Moreover, the power core he installed seemed to be done properly. Satisfied in himself, Mega Man tapped a finger against the exposed machine, then patted his sister's shoulder and went off. He was still the master of the labs, and there were other duties to attend to. The one involving Roll was the happiest of them, and the most likely to turn out well. In fact, Roll seemed she was going to be even happier than before, now that she trusted her brother again.

So then it was of course a downturning in his happiness when he mused over his next job: checking on Crystal Bot and her progress on Bass. The tech-bot had slipped away back to her A.I. lab, the one that Mega Man granted the two robots for their temporary use. But unfortunately as he followed Crystal into this lab, it appeared that Bass was the same as he had been the day before - not that there was any reason to suspect a sudden improvement. Crystal Bot had his armor all done up properly, but his power core had no progress - or so Mega Man guessed by the way Crystal Bot sat down in the solitary chair and slumped over the side of the repair table holding her boss. The girl-bot lifted her head like a pitiful kitten, only to lower it down again once she saw who it was.

"No, Mega Man." her gloomy voice answered his question without it being asked. "Nothing."

Mega Man put a hand on her shoulder and said nothing for a moment. It was hard for him to see Bass lay there as if nothing more than a statue. Strange it was that the rival that had given him so much trouble now lay there helpless. All Mega Man could think of was how proud of Bass Dr. Light had become, and how if Dr. Light were there he would fix Bass and then everything would be alright. But the doctor was in his capsule, and there was no getting him out for the next 29 and a half years (how the time dragged!).

"Don't worry," Mega Man found himself saying aloud. "Worst come to worst, we can wait for Dr. Light's capsule to activate, and he'll be able to look at Bass then."

Crystal Bot looked up at Mega Man again, this time more briefly than before. Her face was too tired from her crying to have too specific an expression.

"I don't want to wait that long." she pouted, folding her arms on the repair table. "Forte-kun hates it when he's deactivated for too long. He doesn't like missing out on things. If he misses out on the next thirty years, he'll be really upset. Worse yet, the REA might decide that since he wasn't activated, his probation won't be up then and he'll still have to spend four more years following their rules. And that's assuming that Dr. Light _can_ fix Forte. I mean, he's never made fortenium before, has he?"

Crystal Bot focused hopefully on Mega Man, but he was lost in this thoughts, trying to remember.

"No, I don't think so." he said. "He's studied it as much as...well, as much as he could, but since Wily probably destroyed his notes and never let anyone know anything about it, there was never much for Dr. Light to go on. I don't supposed there's any chance you could ask Wily to help?"

Crystal Bot bitterly shook her head. Just the thought of it made her sick to her stomach. "No. He's a meanie. The very last thing he did to me was get my brain corrupted and try to kill everyone. That's scary. If I listened to him, he might tell me something that gets Forte-kun blown up - knowing Dr. Wily, probably in a really lame way too. It's just not fair! I know a little something about fortenium, but not enough! And then I have to figure out how the power core processes it! It would be hard already in my normal condition, but because of the Zero virus, Auto had to remove the corrupted part of my brain. And since that third is my smartest CPU, I'm at less than 66% processing power!"

The girl-bot sighed deeply focusing once more on her boss. "The worst part of this is, I could have prevented this. He just had one small flaw - so small I didn't notice it - and blamo! Zero's shockwave knocks it out of wack. All I had to do was tighten one little guage and armor up one wall and that would be the end of the problem. Just one little mistake...one...little...mistake!"

As she spoke each word, Crystal Bot slammed her head into the repair table for punishment. Mega Man quickly went to her side, lifting her shoulders and holding her away from the table.

"Hey, don't do that."

"Oh, sorry." she said with a sigh. "I shouldn't damage your repair table."

"Um, actually I was thinking that you shouldn't damage your head. You might need it." Mega Man smiled. Even when Crystal was miserable she was so cute. "Here, tell me what you know about bassnium. I might be able to help."

"His power core is run by refined Californium." Crystal Bot rubbed her nose and explained. "Californium is really, really powerful and bad, but Dr. Wily figured out how to make it so that it actually gives out energy at a much lower rate while retaining its strength. He had to change the atomic structure like crazy and that's how he got fortenium, or bassnium, whichever you want to call it. Not only is this stuff ridiculous hard and expensive to make, the kind of power core you need inside a robot to convert heat energy into electrical is something I never understood completely. Wily never taught me how to build it."

"This may be a dumb question," Mega Man was already wincing. "But can't you just replace his power core with a different kind?"

"Oh no!" Crystal shook her head in earnest. "Poor Forte! I would never do that to him! His entire structure is designed for fortenium. He can't go to any other power core without incurring a really serious loss in power. It would be so sad - I would just cry! He wouldn't be anything like he used to be, and then he'd spend all his days waiting for me to figure out how to fix him." Crystal Bot bit her lip. "And besides, I'd have to work with some really dangerous stuff to make fortenium. I don't think the government would let me."

She faced Mega Man, clutching her hands tightly together. "Oh please, Rock! Please tell the government that I don't want to blow anyone up! All I want to do is fix Forte-kun so that he can be a good guy and save everybody! Please tell them!"

The poor girl-bot looked so sad and so honest, Mega Man couldn't help but believe her. He glanced over again at Bass, and even though the two of them hadn't been anything like friends, he realized that he would miss Bass. It was bad enough that he could do nothing for his own brother; perhaps there was some way he could help Forte. Bass had abandoned his evil ways, and to live such a short time of freedom from Wily only to die making sure his evil creator would do no more harm was enough to break Mega Man's heart - and he was still picking up the pieces from other sorrows. Mega Man turned again to Crystal, giving a little smile. Hope grew in her eyes.

"I actually think I can do better than that. Here, let me get access to the comm panel."

Crystal Bot stepped aside closer to her master, letting Mega Man pass. He went to the room's console and started hitting the buttons, and soon enough the face of Tim Reyes, busy at his office, appeared on the screen. Rock felt a little nervous about calling him; Reyes shuffled papers quickly around, signing one here and tossing one into a file there. However, Tim made no remark about his tasks, and didn't seem irritated about taking the call. He was used to getting calls from the Light household.

"Yes, Mega?"

"Hi, Mr. Reyes. There's something I want to talk to you about." Mega Man said. "You heard what happened to Bass, right?"

"Yes, I know. Crystal Bot only sent me his damage report three times." Tim glanced at Crystal, who he could see in the comm screen's range. She fidgeted.

"Good, so you know about Bass' lack of bassnium." Mega Man continued. "I've been talking things over with Crystal Bot, and there's another robot who has a bassnium core that can replace Bass' current one."

"Oh, and who is that?"

Mega Man drew in a breath before he spoke. "Zero."

Tim laid down his papers. "You can't be serious."

"Just hear me out. You've always had a problem with Wily breaking into the robot museum and stealing his robots back, right? Well, no matter how much he, or anyone else, might try to steal Zero, it won't be much good if the bassnium power core is gone. No other type of power core could work on him. Besides, Crystal Bot here is the only one who knows anything about bassnium, and it would be dangerous for REA scientists to try to investigate this material on their own."

Mega Man gestured for Crystal Bot to stand closer, and Tim watched with mild suspicion as the girl-bot approached.

"The trouble is, Rock," Tim said. "That Crystal Bot is still on probation, and the REA doesn't trust her. Even if she does plan on being on the good side, she's got such a, well, 'independent' spirit that I'm not sure I could convince anyone to let her have the power core. I'm not even convinced myself."

"Oh please, let me!" Crystal begged. "I don't want to blow anything up! I just want Forte-kun back! He's my best friend in the whole world and I don't want to do anything besides be his technician! I won't do anything bad with the bassnium! It's the only bassnium left in the world, and if I do something bad with it, there won't be any left for Forte! Please, _please_, let me have it! I promise I'll be a good girl!"

Mega Man was surprised. Part of him suspected that Crystal Bot was only using her manipulative cuteness to get what she wanted, but now the girl-bot was as close to crying as a robot could get. She was shaking, even. This even got a reaction out of the normally very controlled ethics agent. Reyes stared, blinking a minute as he thought.

"Well...I'll talk to my boss." Reyes said. "But Crystal, if - and that's a very big 'if' - they say yes to letting you have the power core, then I want a full report of what's done with it. Also, you can't work on this alone. You have to do with with either Mega Man or Auto assisting you. If neither of them are present, you have to leave it alone."

"Okay, Mr. Reyes." Crystal Bot said, putting on her teariest smile. "But um, make sure you send all of Zero's body. I need to know how safe it is to remove the power core, and also what kind of failsafes the body has to make sure the power core doesn't leak. I need the head too, just to make sure the CPU has some governing programs that keep the power core regulated right. I...I have to be safe."

Reyes twisted his lips together in doubt, but as everything she said made sense, he could find no reasonable objection to her. "Alright. I'll see what I can do, but I'm not promising anything. Don't get your hopes up too high."

"Thank you for helping us, Mr. Reyes." Mega Man said.

"Sure." Reyes chuckled. "Rock, you are way too nice."

The screen turned black again, and the grateful girl-bot nervously turned to Mega Man. "Thank you very much, Rock. I...I really appreciate it."

Mega Man smiled at her. "Don't worry about a thing. Bass is my friend...um...my _associate_ too. Heh, don't tell him I said 'friend'."

Crystal giggled. "No, of course not."

The girl-bot, not really sure what to do next, awkwardly turned away from Rock. He didn't know what to say either. He just watched as she sat back down beside Bass, tapping her screwdriver against her head as she tried to think of how she could prepare her boss for a new power core. Mega Man hoped that the REA would say yes, but inwardly the doubts began to bubble up. Both Bass and Crystal Bot were robots on probation, and neither very trusted by the government. All the same, Mega Man tried to think good thoughts as he left the room.

That was task one out of the way, and task two as settled as it could be for the time being. Task three started weighing in on his mind. Technically speaking it should have been task one, but dealing with both girl-bots was a much easier thing. Now he had to figure out how he was going to get the supplies to repair all of the robot masters again (most of them had worse injuries than before) and how he was going to pay for it all. Mega Man tried to tell himself that Crystal Bot would be very willing to sell her crystals and provide money for the lab, and that the government would hand him a few thousand dollars for his efforts. Normally Mega Man didn't like accepting any rewards, but the troubles the lab had while the doctor was alive were only whispers of the current economic struggles. This only made Rock feel worse about taking money from others; life was hard for them too.

Mega Man went over to the main console, plopped in the chair, and pulled up his financial information. He had several stocks he could cash in, and it looked like that was what he might have to do. He still had a CD whose interest would bring in about $105,673, but that wasn't due for about another five months. It was an account he didn't want to penalize - getting a hundred grand every eleven months was no joke, and the base income of the laboratory. Of course, that meant he'd have to cash in something else. Typing in a command produced more information, and Rock grimaced. His stock in orange juice had gone down. It was normally such a good commodity too.

He didn't want to think about it. The more he read the details of his personal finances, the more he slumped in his chair and the less his eyes shone. He rested his chin on his hand and skipped through the pages, growing less interested in each passing detail. So, instead of going about task three, he shoved it to the back of his priorities and started working on task four - which really ought to have been task six or seven, but Mega Man was far too tense to deal with more pressing matters.

Instead he found himself going through his reports and habitually looking for loose ends. There didn't seem to be many. All of the Cain-bots were accounted for, and the Wily robots that weren't were ones that had stayed hidden throughout Mega Man's last fight with Cain and Wily. Wily himself? Still in the hospital, waiting to die. Darkness filled Mega Man's heart. If the man weren't so horrible, he could have spent his last days being taken care of by the only robot who dared to call him family. That wasn't something Mega Man wanted to think about, so he shoved that matter aside too. Narrowing his search to robots not accounted for but had been involved in the recent conflict produced only one answer: Frantic Man.

Mega Man tapped his chin, trying to think of when the schizophrenic robot had been seen last. He still had Gyro Man's battle report records, so he accessed the file and watched it on the monitor. There wasn't much to it. Gyro Man had seen Frantic Man bending over a fallen Star Man, threatened him, and then Frantic Man teleported out. That was the last of him, to anyone's knowledge. Mega Man tried to think. It was Signal Man who built Frantic Man, but according to Crystal Bot, Dr. Wily had taken him back.

"Of course." Mega Man said. "Crystal Bot's memories showed that Wily just had to use a voice command to make Frantic Man turn back to him. That means that Frantic Man still had the CPU of a Wily-bot even when he was in Dr. Cain's control."

It was weird though. What was he trying to do to Star Man? Wily wouldn't have wanted the space-bot, especially not since there was a bullet through his head. Star Man wasn't even that involved in Light Labs activities. And if all Wily wanted was another servant, he wouldn't stop in the middle of a battle just to get one. The only real conclusion he could come to, Mega Man guessed, was that Frantic Man was acting of his own volition.

That got him worried. Perhaps Frantic Man had been installing some sort of mechanism in Star Man that would activate once Star Man was repaired, or perhaps he meant to put a simple tracer on the Team 5 robot. Neither seemed very likely. Gravity Man knew how all of his team members operated, and seeing things like that wasn't a hard task for him.

"All he did was take off Star Man's helmet. Maybe he didn't have enough time to do anything."

That was the most likely theory, though the most annoying part of that was not knowing what Frantic Man intended. It couldn't be helped, though. Mega Man wondered what sort of robot Frantic Man was. He had Signal Man's memories loaded into the computer, but there was nothing much to conclude from them. Signal had simply pieced together what bits of Shade, Fire, Air, Turbo, Clown and apparently Sheep Man that he could find (Frantic Man's legs were Sheep Man's, though nobody could really tell from simply looking) and then expected Frantic Man to do as he was told.

Using Signal Man's CPU, Mega Man decifered the coding that Frantic Man spoke in. This too didn't help. Frantic Man said as little as possible, and what he did say was usually confirmation of whatever order Dr. Cain or his robots happened to give. His only hints were bits of conversation between Frantic Man and Crystal Bot. Crystal never understood the scrap-bot, but Frantic Man spoke to her as if she did. He had made a couple of warning comments to her about the cruelty of Dr. Cain, but since Wily had taken over Dr. Cain's hideout he said nothing more. They didn't have the chance to talk about anything else.

A sudden idea struck Mega Man, and he started to recall what he learned from the battle reports of Team 5. They had fought a lot of robots in the past week's incident, and Mega Man went over the battle memories in his mind. He'd already arranged them chronologically, and he watched them all at once. As he did, Mega Man realized that none of them ever fought Frantic Man. They didn't so much as see him until Gyro Man found him at the very tail end of everything. And, once the fight for Dr. Cain's cave base was ended, no one ever saw Frantic Man ever again. He wasn't involved with Epic Man or Algorhythm Man's efforts to distract the hero robots, and he'd had nothing to do with repairing Zero and sending him out against Monstropolis - or at least his remains hadn't been found, like the remains of the poor Wily-bots (Mega couldn't help but feel sorry for them) who had obeyed their master and ended up killed by Zero for their efforts.

The more Rock thought about it, the more strange it seemed. What did Frantic Man want? Who was he loyal to? Apparently Wily regained control of him, but if that was so, then why did he leave? Why didn't he help the other Wily-bots or at least try to free Wily? Or was Frantic Man waiting Wily to be out of the hospital before freeing him from imprisonment?

Only then did it occur to him that Wily voice command wouldn't have worked if Signal Man had been the first person to program Frantic Man. As much as his different parts had come from different robots, his CPU had to only come from one specific robot. The more Mega Man thought about it, the more he realized who that one robot could be. In fact, it was extremely obvious, and he felt a little silly for not guessing it sooner.

"Well, to be fair, I have had a lot of distractions..." Mega Man considered. _" - Auto, where are you? - "_

_" - I'm just in the back, getting some armor plates. What's up? - "_

_" - I'm going out for a while. Hold down the fort, okay? - "_

_" - Sure thing! It won't be easy, though. This place is so bouncy! - "_

Mega Man couldn't help rolling his eyes, though he smiled as well. Auto could be so ridiculously goofy sometimes. But teaching Auto the proper delivery of jokes was about a twenty-fifth task, meaning he wasn't going to be getting to it any time soon. His financial pressures and family stresses still abounded, which meant that Mega Man was more eager to get a happy task done. This next one was certainly going to be happy in the end. He even knew exactly where to look, though he wasn't sure even then that Frantic Man would be there. Of course, it was only a matter of time before he showed up again. Mega Man teleported out.

His teleport beam landed outside of Great Gems, across the street from it and in front of the local homemade donut shop. His scanners activated immediately, and it surprised even him how quickly he got a signal reply. It was only a little signal, but it was enough. Up above the donut shop came the signal, and he figured if it was too much further away, he wouldn't have been able to trace it.

In any case, Mega Man quickly summoned Rush, and the robot dog lifted him upwards to the top of the building. The roof was very simple, covered in nice tan gravel behind its false front. This false front served to hide the fact that Frantic Man was also atop the building, so that no one could see him from the street. The instant Mega Man's head popped up above the edge of the roof, Frantic Man's head turned that way, and he stared and lifted his wings.

"Please, wait a moment." Mega Man lifted his hands. "I just want to talk to you. Will you listen?"

Frantic Man gave no reply, but his wings lowered patiently. He glanced over to the jewelry shop, then back to Mega Man, and finally back again to the shop. It was obvious he was more interested in that rather than the blue bomber. However, he didn't try to leave, so Mega Man signalled for Rush to lift him higher. Mega Man stepped onto the roof. Rush joined him a moment later, in doggy form.

"She's not there, Frantic Man." Rock said. "She's back at the lab."

Frantic Man turned to the speaker, and Mega wished very much that he had someone else's head besides Turbo Man's. It was so weird to talk to a person without reading their facial features.

"I...I know you probably don't like me," Mega Man continued. "Being a Wily-bot and all. But I can help you. You might be made out of several robots, but you have the mind of only one. I know who that one is, or else I think I do. I can help you, but you're going to have to trust me."

Frantic Man blinked, or at least that's what Mega Man guessed he was doing when his red, LED eyes went off and then on again. Frantic Man stared at Great Gems one more time, then walked toward Mega Man. His posture held no threat. All he did was lift his clown arm and reach over. Mega Man flinched, expecting an attack. It didn't come. Frantic Man's hand was open, and Rock then understood its meaning.

They shook hands.

-t-

The door to the A.I. lab opened again, and Crystal Bot inwardly let her grumpiness bubble up with several bad thoughts. All she was doing was moping over the fate of her boss, but even then she didn't want to be interrupted. None of these came out of her mouth, fortunately, and as she turned around, she relaxed a little. It was Jewel Man _Abohjee_, and she managed a little smile for him before turning back to Bass. It was good to know that he at least was in working order, even if the jewel on his head was a little cracked and needed replacement.

Jewel Man quietly approached her. He knelt next to her and put an arm on her shoulder. "Any change?"

"No." she sighed, tired of being asked. "Rock asked Mr. Reyes if he would let me have Zero's power core, but that was only a couple of hours ago. A lot of people have to approve a decision like that, so I don't know if they'll let me. I hope they do."

Crystal Bot sighed and leaned against Jewel Man. "I don't know what I'll do if they say no. Forte-kun is my best friend...I don't know what I'll do without him."

"Team 5 isn't going anywhere." Jewel Man assured her. "You still have your family, and you can join them on the space station. And you still have me. If you don't want to be in space you can always work with me at Great Gems."

"Crystal Bot frowned. "I don't like you talking like that. Like Forte isn't going to come back."

"I'm just saying, sweetie." Jewel Man patted her head. "Besides, you're very smart. You'll figure out the whole bassnium thing, even if it takes you a while."

"Thanks, _Ahbohjee_." she sniffed. "But it's going to take a long time to do that..."

They didn't speak after that. As little as Jewel Man liked Bass, he had to care for Crystal Bot's sake. Jewel Man wanted her to be happy, even if that meant she hung out with an arrogant fin-head who imagined himself the greatest robot that ever was. Of course, Crystal thought he was the greatest too, and by being around him it meant that she was the greatest technician of all time. Jewel Man resisted rolling his eyes. That was just the way of his sort-of-daughter. He was just going to have to put up with it or leave her. But of course there wasn't much of a chance of doing the latter, so he just hugged her tighter.

After a moment he spoke again. "I have to go to work now, Crystal. I'll talk to you after my shift, alright?"

"Mm'kay." she poked out her bottom lip in a perfect pout. "Come back soon. I don't wanna be by myself."

"I'll try not to work late. Anyway, there's no reason I should have to." Jewel Man got on his feet and logged in the teleport coordinates for his work. "See you later."

"_Annyonggikahsehyo._"

His teleport beam went up and away, leaving the girl-bot more lonely than she was before he came. Crystal Bot flopped down on Bass and grabbed his hand as if it would make him wake up and be himself again. That wasn't going to work, and she knew it. All the same, she closed her eyes and imagined that in just a few days Bass would be right as rain, and they would be best friends again.

"Sonata?"

Crystal Bot scowled, opening her eyes. She didn't like it when someone she didn't like called her by that name. And Mega Man definitely counted. Normally he was sensible enough to call her Crystal Bot like any other stranger. This feeling was made worse by the fact that the one she really wanted to call her Sonata wasn't going to be up and about any time soon.

Crystal Bot lifted her head and turned back only a little. She didn't look Mega Man in the eye. "Did you hear back from Reyes?"

"No." he said. "You know that's going to take a while. Actually, I have something for you."

"If it's not something that will help Forte-kun, I don't care. Leave me alone."

"Don't talk like that." Much to Crystal Bot's chagrin, Mega Man came even closer. "Trust me, you'll like this."

She turned back completely then, only if to make Mega Man stay away. "What is it?"

"A surprise. Come and see!"

Crystal Bot didn't move. She didn't want to. All the same, Mega Man was giving her a really weird, cheery look, so she figured she might as well just humor him. Very reluctantly she moved from Bass' side, glancing over her shoulder the whole way to the door. Out they went into the main lab, and Mega Man led Crystal Bot over to a repair table, occupied by Frantic Man. A little curiosity stirred up in Crystal Bot, and she peered over him.

"Huh, you found him." she said. "I sorta liked Frantic Man. He was nice to me."

"That's no surprise." Mega Man smiled and went to the computer pillar Frantic Man was plugged into. "You see, Frantic Man was made from the scraps of other robots, and that goes for his CPU too. We investigated a little into his memories, and we've found out exactly which CPU that is. Here, I'll show you."

This particular repair table was close to the main telescreen, so Mega Man pressed the proper controls at the computer, allowing a memory to appear on the screen. Crystal had no idea why, but as the blue bomber did this, she could feel her heart rising. The memory on the screen didn't show what the robot looked like, naturally, as it was the recording of what that robot saw with his own eyes and thus didn't show himself. What it did show was a younger and somewhat less wrinkled Dr. Wily standing next to a strange looking Gyro Man - Gyro didn't have his gyro blade attached at the time.

**"So you see," Wily said. "Mega Man will think that his dear brother was the one that kidnapped Dr. Light! Then we'll be rid of Proto Man forever and I'll be able to rule the world! Buahahaha!"**

**Gyro Man grinned with his eyes. "Great! But uh, aren't we supposed to kill Mega Man?"**

**A glimmer of a joke appeared in Wily's eyes as he spoke, and it was a little bit like a sneer. "Heh, that's the way to think. If you do destroy him, then I'll be rid of Mega Man and that will be even better! If not, he gets rid of that nasty Proto Man for me! Whether he defeats you or not, I still win! It's my most brilliant plan ever!" Here Wily turned to the perspective of the memory. "Don't you think so, Crystal Man?"**

**"Your plan appears infallible." the robot recording the memory replied.**

Mega Man stopped the memory. He watched as Crystal Bot froze into place, staring at the memory. She'd had bits and pieces of her team members' memories of her father, so when the solemn voice spoke Crystal Bot knew that it was him. She turned back to Frantic Man, stunned and unable to move. Her face scrunched up, and she shook. She shook so hard she couldn't make any other movement.

"That's..." she finally said, barely able to speak. "That's my daddy in there?"

"Yes it is." Mega Man said softly. "That's Crystal Man."

The girl-bot couldn't hold it in. She collapsed next to the repair table and burst into tears (metaphorically speaking). She shook with glitches as her emotional relays struggled to keep her emotions within prescribed limits. She reached to his Turbo Man face, delicately turning it in her hands as if in disbelief. Finally she lay her head down on his chest, and still shaking, she spoke.

"Rock-kun..._komahehyo_...thank you so much!" she wept. "Thank you!"

Mega Man stepped closer, almost ready to cry himself. He gently knelt down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. He hesitated. His next bit of news wasn't going to be good, but she had to be told.

"Crystal," Mega Man said gently. "We tried not to mess too much with his memory for privacy's sake, but from what Auto and I are able to tell from the dates in his memory, he's running on a back-up copy of your dad's CPU that Wily made sometime when he was staying in the sixth Wily castle. We guess that he'll know about the robot contest scheme, but probably not much further than that. He probably won't remember building you."

"I...I don't care." she sobbed. "He's still my father, and I'm gonna rebuild him."

"Good." Mega Man said. "Before I shut him down, he told me not to activate him until he's back in his normal Crystal Man form. He wants to meet everyone when he's himself."

"That's alright." Crystal Bot sniffed, wrapping his Clown Man arm around her. "It'll take a while to get him in normal order, but I can wait. Whatever makes him feel the most comfortable."

"Oh, I haven't told everyone else in Team 5 yet. I thought I would let you be the one to let them know."

The quiet moment was interrupted by the blare of the comm screen's ring - someone was calling. Mega Man went to go answer it, pushing a little green button on the console. Up popped the face of Aneesha Gupta, one of the nurses at Peace Street Hospital. Mega Man knew her well. She took very good care of Dr. Light during those final months.

"Oh? How can I help you?" Mega Man asked.

"I need to speak to Crystal Bot." the Indian girl said, a little tense. "She wanted me to let her know if Wily's condition changed."

Crystal Bot nervously got up from behind the repair table. That was a request she'd asked before Wily had tricked her into confronting Zero, and now she wasn't so sure about her "grandfather". Still, she figured she should listen, so she neared the computer screen.

"What's going on?"

"Wily isn't doing well at all." Aneesha said, scrunching her hands together. "We're not sure he's going to last much longer. He's been going in and out of consciousness for the past three hours, so I thought you would want to know. If you want to see him...well, now's the time."

Crystal Bot started to fidget. "Um, thanks...I'll...talk to you later."

She turned off the comm screen and gazed back at Frantic Man, her father trapped in a mis-matched shell. All of her feelings fought against each other in her heart, and yet somehow Crystal Bot knew exactly what she needed to do. She only let herself be taken in by her doubt for a few moments.

"Rock..." she said, still staring at Frantic Man. "It's not..._weird _if I want to see Dr. Wily, is it?"

Mega Man too was looking at the deactivated robot. "Yes, it is a little weird. But it's also very merciful. Do what you think is right."

"I thought you might say that. Well, I guess you can tell Team 5 about my dad...I think maybe they'll understand about Dr. Wily. I love my daddy...but..."

"But you're going to see him again." Mega Man nodded. "That's not the case with Wily."

"Yeah." Crystal Bot eased at his understanding. "Explain it to them if they don't understand, okay?"

"Sure I will."

"Thank you, Rock-kun." she smiled at him. "Thank you so much."

Crystal Bot teleported out.

\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Raise your hand if you guessed the identity of Frantic Man before I said it here. Come on, don't be shy. :D

- _Annyonggikahsehyo_ is goodbye in korean if you're the one staying and the person you're talking to is leaving. If you're the one leaving, you say _annyonggikehsehyo_. The way you remember the difference is to remember that _ka_ means to go or to leave, and by saying _annyonggikahsehyo _you're telling someone to go in peace. _Kohmahehyo _is the informal way to say "thank you", as opposed to the formal _komapsumneeda_.

Character Profiles!

=====Crystal Man

Crystal Man started off as one of Wily's more idealistic inventions that he wanted to build to outdo Dr. Light. Much in the same vein as Star Man being able to appreciate art, Wily wanted Crystal Man to be able to tell the future. This failed miserably. First of all, telling the future is not something anyone can really do, and Wily wasn't familiar enough with the trickster kind of fortune telling to make that operate better in Crystal Man. Eventually Wily did give Crystal Man enough information to examine economic factors and thus at least predict the future of money, which Crystal Man was able to do with some measure of success. He's the guy you want to ask about stock investing.

Crystal Man is the third Team 5 robot to be started. The first and second are Star and Charge Man. All three were begun during the time when Wily was building Team 2, though an unfinished Star Man was put away in storage. Charge and Crystal Man at the time were little more than mechaniloids, and the only significant thing Crystal Man did for years was create energy crystals for Dr. Wily to sell in the black market. Crystal Man also provided the crystals that went to build Gemini Man's fortress.

It was during the horrible time when Dr. Wily had lost MM4 that Crystal Man (and Charge Man) became a normal robot master with sentient A.I. Dr. Wily blamed Proto Man for his previous loss, so he invented the MM5 scheme to get back at Proto Man. Crystal Man did his part in the plan, but at no time did he like it or really care about anything Wily wanted. In fact, Crystal Man found himself hating the man almost as soon as he became sentient. He'd been a mechaniloid for years, and Wily didn't delete his old memory when he was upgraded, so Crystal Man already knew very well the madman he had to work with.

However, Crystal Man never expressed this hate, not even to his team members. He already knew from the very beginning that Dr. Wily never expected them to actually beat Mega Man during MM5, and this made him even more bitter about his master. That, however, went unnoticed by his master. Crystal Man was one of Wily's favorite robots, especially since Crystal Man never dared talk back to him. Crystal Man was only in the robot museum for the briefest time, being captured at the end of MM6 and released during MM7. It was after that the horrified robot found himself as Dr. Wily's robot assistant, and specialized in building the mechaniloids that would fight against Mega Man during the later schemes. He spent the rest of his life being this assistant.

Crystal Man was very intent on making sure his team was upgraded, and so he built Crystal Bot to do the work for him. He planned on sneaking her the materials while he pretended that everything was normal in front of Wily. No one is really sure what his plan was, but Crystal Man had his ideas about freeing Team 5 from Wily's influence. For this scheme he wanted his daughter to be very smart, so once MM9 was under way, Crystal Man drafted an unwilling Jewel Man into stealing Mega Man X's plans, as well as some information on Auto and Roll.

With only a little of Jewel Man's help, Crystal Man got Crystal Bot into a mostly working order. You know this part of the story already, how he was caught and a jealous Wily stomped on his motherboard to murder him. Wily felt sorry for little Crystal Bot, so he reprogrammed her and adopted her as his own, as creepy as that may sound. Crystal Man's body, what parts of it didn't get used to upgrade Crystal Bot to her normal form, were recycled and used to make some Team 10 mechaniloids. Crystal Man is very, very lucky that Wily didn't remember he had a backup copy of him in an old castle.

Crystal Man is very solemn in appearance and personality. He's very calm, moderately kind, but fairly exclusive in a way. He spoke rarely, and then mostly to his own team members, though he never shunned other Wily-bots, other than mean robots like Tengu Man (who shunned him right on back) or crazy ones like Aqua Man. Him and Clown Man used to have the worst conflicts, and only Crystal Man's favored position kept Clown Man at bay. Most of the time Crystal Man is alone, and he wishes that he hadn't been a mechaniloid back when Proto Man worked for Wily. He thinks they could have been good friends. Crystal Man usually got along with his team, but him and Gravity Man had some mild trouble because Gravity Man was jealous that Crystal was the robot assistant to Wily instead of him.

While his personality made him very solitary, Crystal Man did feel lonely from time to time and that's one of the major reasons he built Crystal Bot. He wanted a daughter because there were no girl-bots around.

=====Aneesha Gupta

**"Can I have your autograph?"**

Good point: Very friendly

Bad point: Very nosy

Likes: Celebrities

Dislikes: Bad hair days

I don't know why I'm doing Aneesha's profile. She's really a very minor character. Her last appearance was in an extra scene in Okkusenman's bonus features. Wow, that was more than two years ago...

Aneesha is kind of a ditz. Her father is an immigrant from India, and thus he wanted his daughter to have the best life she could in America. Aneesha, however, is hardly as serious as her father, though she's plenty intelligent. She likes fun clothes, getting her nails done, and chatting it up about the latest celebrity couple. Her father's views won out in the end, and Aneesha ended up going to medical school and becoming a nurse. She's fine with this. She likes the salary she gets, and is considered one of the best and most friendly nurses in Peace Street Hospital. Even better, she got to see lots of famous people in the past year.

Aneesha's love of collecting autographs has the habit of getting her in trouble. When Dr. Light first went to the hospital, she could barely sit still for wanting his signature. She managed to get his, Mega Man's, Roll's and Auto's before too long. And the day Bass decided to become a good guy and tell this to Dr. Light, she got his autograph too - though if she'd been paying more attention, she would have noticed that her boss didn't want her letting a dangerous robot into the hospital. Yeah, her hobbies sometimes get the better of her. Later on she managed to get Crystal Bot's signature, as well as one of Bruce's footprints. She bribed Dr. Wily with pizza to get his, and considers this her most proud accomplishment. She's very, very lucky that none of her bosses know about it.


	26. Torment

Proto Man was awake for the first time in days. He wasn't sure where he was, but as it was probably some REA facility, he didn't care much. The specific room he occupied was little more than a cement rectangle with the blocks that made up its walls all painted a bland white. One wall had a door - locked beyond locked - and another held a thick glass window. On the other side he could see more boring concrete block walls and a chair, making it only slightly more interesting than Proto Man's side.

Blues' arms were bound in front of him by the usual robot handcuffs, and his feet were shackled. He regarded both of these facts without emotion. He was a prisoner, and that was all that mattered. It seemed a little redundant, however, especially since he was barely put back together at all from his fateful encounter with Zero. The only thing that really bothered him about that moment was his lack of helmet. The knowledge that now the entire government potentially knew what he looked like made him sour on the inside. And now his picture sat inside some computer, just waiting to be hacked.

He didn't sigh. He didn't do much of anything. Somehow he was tired and didn't really care about his surroundings. He was scheduled to be deleted, wasn't he? What was the point of this? Proto Man didn't try to guess, though his mind, rebellious thing it was, started guessing anyway.

_Bad brain._ he told himself. _You don't need to know everything._

Nevertheless it guessed, telling him that he was going to be interviewed very soon, if the chair across the glass meant anything. Proto Man gagged. He didn't want to explain himself to anyone. It was too exhausting to put up with questions he didn't want to answer. Still, what else was he going to do? At least he looked decent for the interview. Proto Man's hair was usually as unruly as his brother's, but thankfully a cop had seen fit to brush it for him. He glanced at his reflection in the glass, but only for a second. He wasn't particularly eager to look at himself any time soon.

The door in the other room opened. Proto Man couldn't see it from where he was sitting - the window in the other room was only so large - but the sound was unmistakeably door-like. There was a moment's pause before the person who opened it came into view. It was a young person, pale and skinny. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, aside from three or four curls too short and stubborn that popped out over her forehead. The outfit she wore was as cold as the girl's face: dark jeans and a gloomy printed hoodie.

Proto Man managed a polite glance into Leila Copenhagen's eyes. Normally they were hazel with a touch of green, but today he swore they were a terrible, frozen blue, . Her aura sucked away all warmth. It was perhaps for this reason she pulled the hoodie around her so tightly. Leila shuffled over to the chair in the opposite room. Proto Man wondered if she really needed that hoodie hanging about her face. He checked the tempurature. Fifty-two degrees. They sure wanted it cold in ther office buildings. Proto Man tried to ignore the skull print on the side of Leila's hood.

But as he watched her, Leila was watching him as well. This was the first time Leila had ever seen him without his helmet. There were times when going without his helmet was a better disguise than wearing it, but Proto Man never went without in front of Leila. He didn't want the girl to see his face. Blues, when de-helmeted, looked too much like his brother. A little more mature, but still, it was very much an innocent, naiive look. One that couldn't defend itself against Leila. There was no hardness in it, and only Proto Man's emotional exhaustion and years of control kept him from hanging his head in shame. He lowered his eyes, and that was all.

"Hi." she said.

"Hi."

Akward pause. Then another. Just one more. Then finally, Leila spoke.

"So, how is it behind bars?"

"I don't know. I've been shut down the entire time."

"Oh."

A fourth silent pause.

"So..." Blues dared. "What have you been doing?"

"Not much. Just hanging out with some old friends." Leila hunched lower in her chair. "Nothing really interesting."

Proto Man wondered what sort of rabble those "old friends" were. He had a feeling he might could name a few, and the names that came to mind didn't please him. He knew many of Leila's old..._friends_, and they weren't the sort of friends that warned you that you were going down the wrong path. After all, who were they to judge those that shared the same bad habits as them? It didn't help that most of their habits were illegal, and the ones that _technically _were legal Proto Man didn't like at all. It had taken a lot of work to get Leila to stay away from those people three years ago. Proto Man decided, in the most sensitive way possible, to check and see what Leila meant.

"Did Sarah pay you back that ten dollars she owes you?" he asked.

"Sarah from church? Oh, I forgot about that." Leila gave a lazy, teenage shrug. "No, I haven't seen her in a while. She's being a snob right now, so I'm giving her some space."

Proto Man was tempted to roll his eyes, only he didn't have his visor to hide the action. He knew Sarah, and that she was about as snobby as a hamster, and as harmless as one to boot. Sarah's "snobbery" probably hadn't been anything more than saying, "no, I'm not going to tell your mom you're at my house when you're not." Out of habit, Blues examined Leila's face. The girl only put a cursory effort into hiding the truth. After only a brief flash of vague shame, Leila's eyes tensed, glaring at Proto Man and almost daring him to inquire further. He didn't take the bait.

He wished she would look away. He couldn't hide without the protection of his shades, but now she could see him for how he really was: vulnerable, naiive, and completely incapable of reasoning on his own. All the years of his wandering and learning were stripped away with just one hateful look from Leila. She had the power to hurt him far more than Zero could. Proto Man sighed, turning his head to the door. How long were the cops going to let him endure this?

"Leila, why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you again - and ask you some questions." she cleared her throat, shifting into a more forward position on the chair. "First of all, when you...when my dad died, was it an accident?"

Proto Man's bindings tightened, along with his resolve to keep the tension from showing. He didn't know he had enough emotion left in him to hurt this bad. There was no candy-coating this answer, and Leila would have noticed at once. She wasn't anybody's fool. Those cold eyes would stare right through him like glass. Blues wished more than ever for his visor.

"No." he said simply. "Long story short, I was a fool. I was afraid of the consequences of Gamma on the planet. I thought he would be too powerful and be used to intimidate the countries of the world. So I went with Dr. Wily in the hopes of destroying it. I didn't know that he was planning on taking it himself. And your father...he was in the way."

Leila's muscles tightened. Her confusion, however, made perfect sense to Proto Man. She knew him as a wise guide. She'd never seen him as a fool. But he had been, in his youngest days. An he never wanted her to find out.

"Was it quick?" Leila nearly choked on the question.

"No. He was badly hurt, but I had attempted to allow the emergency workers to find him. Quick Man attacked the first ambulance. By the time the next one was able to come, it was too late."

Leila didn't have to guess the implications. She swallowed hard, but she was unpracticed at holding in her hurts. Tears too hot to cool her reddening cheeks streaked down. Proto Man's heart sank. He'd tried to do so much for Leila and her mother over the years, but talking about Richard made all of that so worthless. It couldn't change the fact that he'd killed her father.

"Leila," he knew he had to say something. "Your father was very brave. All the other guards fled when we attacked Gamma's storage facility. Your father was the only one that stood his ground."

"Fat lot of good that did him!" Leila snapped. "He didn't do anything good by staying! He didn't even stop you from stealing Gamma! He should have ran away like all the others and let Mega Man deal with Wily like he always does! He was such an idiot! If he was thinking about his family instead of himself he'd be here right now! Mom even told him not to get that job with Dr. Light!"

"Your family needed the money-"

"Not as bad as we needed Dad!" Leila snapped. "We'd have been alright without Dr. Light's stupid money. Why didn't he just build a bunch of security robots anyway?"

Leila slammed herself back in the chair, tightly folding her arms as she went back to her tears. Blues wished she would look up. If she looked up, she would see him and know how horrible he felt. Of course, if he was going to be making wishes, he wished instead that he could go back and change what he had done. Dr. Wily had dabbled in time travel. If only it worked...

Proto Man couldn't stand it any longer. "Leila, please believe me when I say I'm sorry. It's true. I am sorry. There hasn't been a moment afterwards when I didn't regret what I've done. After all of this, when I'm deleted, please forgive me. I'll be dead, you might as well. Don't let your anger for me ruin your life. Please live well. I couldn't stand it if you threw your life away because of this."

"Throw my life away?" Leila growled. "What exactly does that mean? Why should I care about _you_? You're just a murderer! I'll do what I want with my life, and you don't get to tell me what to do!"

"I'm just saying, over the years I was something of a...father figure for you-"

"Don't you _dare_ say that!" she screamed. "You're _nothing_ to me! You hear? _Nothing_! You killed my father! You don't have the right to boss me around! I'll screw up my life as much as I want! So what if I drink or do drugs? You don't get to tell me no!"

"Leila, STOP!" Proto Man snapped. "Stop that RIGHT NOW! I haven't spent the last ten years watching out for you just to have you act like this! Getting angry isn't going to bring your father back! Would you want him to see you being a brat? Doing drugs? I owed you my protection, and I'll be damned if you're going to ruin your life over me! So calm down and deal with it!"

By this point - and neither of them had noticed themselves moving - both of them were up at the glass, standing and facing each other with anger in their eyes. But there was only a moment's standoff. Proto Man didn't want to stare her down. He wanted her to understand.

"Leila...I really care for you. I want you to have a great life and have all the best." he began uncertainly. "Please don't torture me like this. I just...want you to be happy somehow, even after all this. That's all I want. Don't look at the past anymore. Just...be happy. Somehow."

Leila said nothing. She was hot - her skin was still a steaming red - and she was angry. All the same, she seemed to temper a little. She stared down at the floor a moment, then her brown eyes flicked back into his. Out came an open hand.

"I want your scarf. Hand it over."

Proto Man looked down and realized that indeed he was still wearing his scarf. He was a little surprised that one of the cops hadn't taken it from him, though he could think of no reason why they would. He just reached up with his cuffed hands and started undoing the knot. As he did this, he shuffled over to the door (darn those shackles) and worked at the yellow stuff with his fingers. It finally gave way, and he hung it on the doorknob before heading to his chair again.

"The guards will give it to you later." Proto Man said.

"Oh. Good."

There was silence for a minute, and Proto Man noticed that she was back in her chair as well, sitting there like an active volcano putting up a single stream of ashen smoke. The moment was just too awkward for him. Proto Man cleared his throat to speak one more time. If he said nothing else, he was going to say this.

"Do you remember that night when you were acting in the school play?"

"No." Leila said, in the exact, stuffy voice that you instantly knew was a lie. "I don't."

Proto Man just went on. "Remember what you said afterwards? Afterwards when you didn't go with Jared?"

Leila scrunched up in her seat, squirming awkwardly. There was no point in denying it now. "I told Jared he was a moron if he thought I was going to go home with him."

"And after that, when I was there?"

"Pssht. You were there already. If I was dumb enough to go with Jared, then you would have punched him out or something."

"Of course. But what about when I approached you?"

Leila said nothing. She didn't even point her sour face in his direction.

"You said you promised never to put yourself in harm's way." Proto Man said softly. "You said you were never going to let yourself be taken in by all that 'stupid stuff the other kids do'. I'm holding you to that promise, Leila."

"Mm." Leila slouched a little more. "You know, Blues, the whole reason I came here was to find out that you didn't mean to kill my dad. Maybe it was an accident, or a different robot was torturing him, or maybe my dad was a part of Wily's plans and you were trying to stop him. But that didn't happen, did it?"

"No."

The tears that now spilled down the girl's face were worse than her angry ones from before. Proto Man could barely stand to look at her, she was so sad. But Leila showed no mercy. She didn't look away. She said nothing at all, but stared at him with her pinched and twisted face, silently sending out the few words: _how could you?_

"Leila-"

It was too late. The girl was headed for the door, and it was only seconds before she was out of Proto Man's vision, and out of the door on her side. Proto Man's head hung to his chest. He wished they wouldn't let her speak to him. What good would it do? The only purpose it could possibly serve was to make Proto Man feel as guilty as possible about shooting Richard Copenhagen. It was a burden Proto Man had carried for many a year, and it only grew heavier throughout that time.

Proto Man leaned back in the chair. Part of him really hoped that Leila was trying to torture him. If so, then she really didn't mean all those horrible things she said about drugs and such. Blues couldn't stand it if she fell in with the wrong crowd and started...well, he didn't like to think about that. Did she want him to die thinking that she was going to ruin her life?

He was beyond tired of thinking about it anymore. Proto Man engaged his shut down function, only to find it didn't work.

"Great."

A minute later, some of the guards walked in. Proto Man didn't move. One of them took away the scarf, but Blues didn't watch. He only sat there patiently until one of the people came and shut him off.

-t-

Mega Man took a deep breath. He both wanted and didn't want to be there, but the latter feeling, the stronger of the two, was obligated to yield to the first. So Mega pushed open the door to the courtroom, entering the small place to testify about his brother's behavior. As imposing and harsh as the moment felt, really the Sacremento REA courtroom wasn't anything too unique. There were a few rows of wooden benches in the back, separated by the typical little wall from the plantiff's and defendant's tables. No one was going to sit at those, however. This was just a testimonial hearing. No one was going to be sitting at the juror's panel to the front left, either. Times like these Rock felt thankful that robots didn't have the right to a jury trial.

_Of course, not too many robots would receive a hearing like this one._

Mega Man hoped that was a good sign. He looked up at the judge's podium. Again, it was not unique, but someone would definitely be sitting there. It was going to be someone named Judge Greg Palmer, but Mega Man didn't know him. The chair next to the judge's was, quite obviously, the witness stand. Somehow the boring wooden thing seemed more imposing than even the judge's seat, though of course Rock knew his feelings about that were bound to change.

"Excuse me, Mega Man. I'm going to need your zip drive, please."

Mega Man startled as if he hadn't seen the police officer standing at the door. He quickly reached into his armor and pulled out five zip drives, each a different color.

"Oh, here you are. This first one is from my memories of Proto Man that you don't already have on file. These others are from Roll, Auto, Crystal Bot, and Bass. Those robots weren't able to be here today, but they asked me to bring their testimonies. All of them except Bass have prepared a recorded statement."

"Alright."

The brown-haired human remained thankfully unemotional as he accepted the zip drives, placing them inside a briefcase that rested on a metal stand. It was tradition in those robot days to follow a specific procedure: the cop takes each zip drive, sets it inside the foam lining of the briefcase where the holes inside provided snug shelter for each, and then he writes the name of the robot on a little paper tab above each. The cop unhooked a clipboard from below the stand, lifting it up and handing a pen to Mega Man. The bomber signed his name in his perfect handwriting (Dr. Light always made him practice) and turned to find a place to sit.

He hoped it didn't last long. Mega Man was already doomed to have a raw mood, but he was the only one there from the lab. None of the others had opted to come with him. Auto gave the pitiful excuse that he had work to do, but that wasn't very true, not with Monstropolis' shipping still out of wack and the lab not having the supplies they needed to continue their work. Likewise Roll turned the trip down, looking up at her brother with pitiful eyes and timidly saying that she still wasn't fully repaired.

_She's operational enough to talk._ Mega Man couldn't help a little spite, and he tossed himself down on the bench. _That doesn't take a lot of effort._

Crystal Bot of course wasn't going to come. Mega Man knew before he asked that she was going to back away nervously and mutter pitiful things, offering no more than a zip drive for Proto Man's sake. Of course, Rock wasn't so sure Sonata would be a comforting companion anyway. Emotionally speaking, she was a wimp. Strangely enough, Mega Man found himself the most angry at Bass, though Bass had the best excuse and the least reason to come. He was still deactivated, stowed away in a side lab. Besides, he and Proto Man weren't exactly on the best terms, so even a fully activated Bass was unlikely to be there, he thought.

_Oh, what am I thinking? I can't think like that! I really have to be strong now! _Mega Man made a determined fist. _This is for Blues! _

"Mega Man? There you are!" a thick, Russian accent from ahead of him called back. "You come here and sit next to me!"

Surprised, the robot looked up to see Kalinka, her father, and Pharoah Man sitting in the very front row of the left side of the seating area. Kalinka waved her hand at the seat next to her, and Mega Man warmed as if with a hot drink. Now there were friends and company!

"I'm really glad to see that you guys made it." Mega Man said as he hurried to sit beside Kalinka. "I wasn't sure if they called you or not. They aren't publicizing this hearing."

"What? Of course we're going to be here." Kalinka pulled down on her expensive dress jacket, smoothing it over with extra dignity. "No one is going to stop us from helping Proto Man. He is like family!"

"They didn't actually tell us to come." Dr. Cossack added, not looking nearly as spendid in his ordinary lab coat. Though he did add some dress pants instead of jeans for once. "Auto told us about it when he called about Dive Man. I don't know why in the world my robot feels like he had to fight Zero, but at least I found out about this because of him."

"They were not going to tell us!" Kalinka huffed. "They said that we are biased! But they were not going to keep us out. I made sure of that!"

Mega Man smiled at that. He knew how stubborn Kalinka could get. Dr. Cossack was really the only person that could tell her no, and that wasn't true all of the time. Or perhaps Skull Man could sway her sometimes. As her bodyguard, he had to be aware of danger at all times. Apparently the courtroom didn't present too much of a threat, because Skull Man wasn't there. Mega Man turned back just in time to see Skull Man coming up with two hot cups of something, probably coffee (Mega Man didn't have smell adaptors, so he wasn't sure). Rock made sure to scoot aside so that Skull Man could hand the cups to his humans and then take a seat on the other side of Rock.

As the blue bomber looked back, he also noticed another robot sitting far as he could, huddling off in a corner. It was Spark Man. The poor robot looked terrible. He wasn't fully repaired from the Battle of Zero (so people called the incident), and much of his armor was sub-standard. Besides this, the two poles that normally made up his arms were gone. Instead, to be compliant with the court's no-weapon rule, he had two little robot arms. They were too skinny and puny-looking compared to Spark Man's shoulders, and the orange robot definitely seemed self-conscious as he stared at the floor.

Mega Man turned away. He didn't want to look at Spark Man. He already knew what Spark Man had on his memory drive. Spark Man was one of the robots from Team 3, and he, Gemini Man, Flash Man, and Top Man were told they had to be present to testify, as they were part of the scheme to steal Gamma. The other robots protested, saying they didn't know much about Proto Man's involvement - "Wily always told him to do special things that didn't have anything to do with us" - while Spark Man didn't say anything at all. Of course, the others were quick to point the finger at Spark Man and say that he'd actually talked to Proto Man the night of, and that his testimony was more important than theirs. Spark Man refused to say anything about it to Mega Man before.

**"Really, Rock, you don't want to know." Spark Man said quietly. "You'll see it at the hearing anyway."**

"Why does Spark Man bother you?" Skull Man asked him. "Is he a witness to the killing?"

The bomber facepalmed. He thought he was going to be sick.

_Of course Skull Man is going to be as blunt as possible._ Mega Man rubbed his eyes, trying not to snap. "I think it's a confession, actually. Spark Man apparently talked to Proto Man when...the night of."

"Pish posh!" Kalinka snorted. "There's no way in the world Proto Man ever killed anyone. Anyone who didn't deserve it, anyway."

There was nothing Mega Man could say. He knew the truth. As much as he wanted to feel the same way as Kalinka about it, he'd seen his brother's face when asked about it. There was no longer any question. Mega Man hoped only in the mercy of the court. He settled his stare into his hands and wished that Roll were there. As if this wish would suddenly make Roll appear, Mega Man turned again to the door. It didn't open, so instead he looked around.

Mega Man recognized only a few of the people in the room. Most of the people he knew were people from around Monstropolis, or had known Proto Man when he rescued them from one of Wily's schemes. What surprised him was the number of people he didn't know. Were they friends of Proto Man? His fears told him that they were more than likely to be dissenters: people who knew all of the bad things that Proto Man had done. Rock remembered that the murder wasn't the only crime his brother had comitted in the early days, and that surely there were other people who had complaints about him. Even worse, they might be rightful complaints.

Rock turned away from them, sour. _When is Mr. Briggs going to get here? He said he was flying in yesterday. Was his plane delayed?_

The double doors at the back of the room opened, and Mega Man looked expectantly for the Californian Senator. Only it wasn't him. It was instead a pony-tailed brunette in a hoodie. She looked only straight ahead at the judge's booth and sat down at the back row on the other side of the aisle. Next came her mother. Mega Man knew it was her, though today Tessa Brown was more formally dressed in a black pencil skirt, grey blouse, and blazer.

Mega Man wondered why he didn't expect them before. Of course the Copenhagens were going to testify. Rock let go of his hopes. The poor girl and her mother were so grim. Tessa tightly gripped her daughter's hand as if nothing in the world were more precious. Leila leaned her head on her mother's shoulder, and only then could Rock see the dark circles under her red eyes. She'd been crying, and hard at that.

The robot turned away, feeling more sick than ever. How could he hope any longer that his brother would be saved? The Copenhagens deserved justice, and nothinig Mega Man could say would change that fact. He slumped down in the bench, trying not to shake. He wasn't ready to say goodbye.

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Sorry, guys, I hope you don't like Proto Man...:D

- Actually, if Bass were activated, he would have come to the hearing. Mostly to figure out what Proto Man's deal is. Proto Man would be very glad to know Bass isn't there.

- Dr. Cossack's accent isn't as strong as Kalinka's. He's spent more time with non-Russians than his daughter. Crap, I need to write a story about Skull Man. I love his natural brutality, and how having him do undignified things, like having a tea party with Kalinka, is extra hilarious as a result.

- You know, I didn't actually intend originally for both Hard Man and Shadow Man, the two witnesses to Proto Man's crime, to get destroyed by Zero. Well, I did mean it for Shadow Man, but then Hard Man just ended up being with Zero when he was activated too. I wrote myself in a bit of a hole there, but yeah. I figure they have Proto Man's memory card, so it's not too necessary to have Hard's or Shadow's also. For years the REA suspected Proto Man. They knew of his friendship with the Copenhagens over the years, but they didn't know if it was compassion or guilt that made Proto Man take such good care of them.

The REA never interfered with Proto Man's efforts to help the Copenhagens. They knew the family's situation, and they figured they might as well let Proto Man do whatever good for the family that he could. Of course, that was before they knew Proto Man was guilty.

Character profiles!

=====Leila Copenhagen

**"What do you want?"**

Good point: Practical

Bad point: Ill tempered

Likes: Being comfortable

Dislikes: Stuck up people

Leila Copenhagen is too emotional for her own good. Most of the time she's aware of her bad temper and tries to avoid the things that make her angry, especially when her mother is around. Sometimes, however, she just has to let it out. You can tell how much she likes you by her level of self control. If she tries to be nice, good and well, but if she doesn't like you, she won't even hesitate to be "honest" about all your nitpicky little flaws.

Leila wasn't always that way. She was actually a very happy and social child. She was a little spoiled, especially by her father. Richard would have done anything for her, and he loved his little girl very much. However, when he died, Leila didn't know how to accept it. She was very young, and she kept expecting her mother to tell her when dad was coming back. No matter what answer Tessa gave her daughter, Leila usually ended up throwing a tantrum. These were no ordinary tantrums either. She would bang her head against cabinets, punch walls, and throw toys across the house. Her uncontrollable anger prevented babysitters from wanting to watch her, and this made it very hard for Tessa to keep a job.

Proto Man noticed their financial problems and stole several thousands of dollars from Dr. Wily to pay the mortgage. It was the night that he tried to sneak up to the Copenhagen's house that Leila met him, and the girl insisted that Proto Man come back later for a tea party. While Proto Man told Roll about this tea party, he didn't mention that Leila threw one of her tantrums and tried to bite him. Notedly, she only did that once. Attacking a robot hurt far more than attacking a wall. This earned respect in Leila's eyes. Proto Man was not someone she could manipulate, and so she stopped trying. Their friendship calmed Leila down, and Blues often substituted for a therapist or even sometimes a babysitter.

Leila never saw too much reason to be very girly as she grew up. She was okay with makeup, fingernail polish and the like, but seeing other girls get obsessed with it made her feel sick, because she knew there were more important things to life than falling for shallow things. In almost a hypocritical fashion, Leila ended up hanging out with some drug users, though they mostly stuck to weed. She herself didn't use herself at that point, but she claimed she understood them. At this point Blues stepped up his visits and made it very clear what sort of life that led to. Proto Man often went out of his way to stop crime rings, and he filled Leila's head with the stories he found out during his secretive work. He told her about how selling drugs was what crime rings did for their funding, and the sort of things that happened to runaways. Leila hadn't actually been planning to run away, but Proto Man figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Proto Man's friendship always made Leila want to be smart. She admired him and his knowledge so much that she wanted to do well and work harder in school. For a while it was hard for Leila to get along with her stepfather, as all her admiration was Proto Man's, but she did decide to be nice to him for her mother's sake. Actually, she had a mild grudge against him early on, because when Roger Brown and her mother ran off to Vegas to get married, they had left Leila behind. Proto Man brought her to Vegas so that she could be at the wedding, but the incident didn't earn Roger any points.

What did earn Roger points with his stepdaughter was his actions when Leila found out the truth about Proto Man. He let Leila cry in his arms, then he called the police and told them everything so that Leila didn't have to talk to them. With the robot out of the way, Leila found herself more willing to actually find out what sort of person Roger was, and while her early assessment of him was correct (namely, that he was boring), she learned that sometimes boring is a good thing, especially at times when life is too emotional.

=====Luminous Sigma

**"I will make a world free from humans!"**

Good point: Strong warrior

Bad point: Huge jerk

Likes: Angst

Dislikes: Following orders

Yep. Totally didn't make up that first name for Sigma. All Dr. Cain's idea. Uh-huh. Notedly, nobody calls him that, especially after he caught the Maverick Virus. It's just too weird to call a bad guy Luminous. Occasionally a Maverick calls him that, but they learn pretty fast not to.

Sigma was one of Dr. Cain's earlier creations, and also one of his favorite. The early Sigma was a hero who enjoyed doing good and protecting people. Sigma and X were actually good friends, and as Sigma was one of Dr. Cain's personal reploids rather than a marketplace model, the two often hung out, though Sigma never liked video games as much as X.

When a batch of reploids were reprogrammed by a baddie to attack Arcadia, Dr. Cain got the idea to create the Maverick Hunters, a reploid anti-crime agency. He said that since reploids were causing trouble, they could be responsible to end it. Sigma was the first volunteer in this effort, and soon gained great popularity within the Hunters as his natural leadership ability made everyone want to follow him. He even convinced X to volunteer as well, though X at first wasn't very good.

Sigma was much more kind in those days, even when he encountered the worst Maverick he would ever fight: Zero. Zero was a violent but mighty fighter, and Sigma only defeated him out of what then appeared to be luck. Zero started to glitch due to a programming error, and when Sigma took advantage of this to finally defeat Zero, he ended up not only contracting the Maverick Virus, but also gained the ability to spread this virus. It latched onto Sigma even more violently than Zero; while Zero was able to withstand and even resist the virus (even without knowing it), Sigma was not strong enough. Sigma's last act as a good robot was to have mercy on Zero and allow him to be reprogrammed.

Since then, well, you've played the X series. Sigma tries over and over again to take over the earth, only to fail each time and yet mysteriously return from a believed death. Eventually Sigma figured out that he alone could not bring about the dream of a humanless world, so in X8 he changed his plan: instead of infecting robots himself, he could create numerous "little Sigmas" using the sort of technology that made Axl so unique. This plan too ultimately failed. It did, however, result in the loss of Sigma's ability to return to the realm of the living. He'd given his powers to his "children", and so once X, Zero, and Axl defeated him for the last time, that was it. No more Sigma. Ironically, his efforts only doomed reploids in the end, and even though humans were gone so too was Sigma's dream.

Sigma was just as popular to his followers as a bad guy as he was when he was good, despite the fact his insane plans generally get all of them killed. Sigma was admired by those with the Maverick Virus for many years after his death, and the rebellious reploids carry out their awful deeds in his name. It would make Sigma proud to know this.


	27. Goodbye, Dr Wily

Crystal Bot clapped her hands together, clasping them tightly and praying that everything was alright. She'd done all she could do, and now all there was left was to turn the switch, activate him, and hope he didn't explode. As good as the explosion was sure to be with Zero's power core, Crystal Bot preferred her boss to be alive and well. Bass had spent enough time laying in the quiet A.I. room, and it was time he woke up. Treble was already up, wagging his tail and barking at her to hurry up. Crystal Bot lovingly reached over to Bass' neck, pausing once to giggle over his peaceful face, then gently touched the activation switch.

Bass' eyes opened at once. Crystal Bot gritted her teeth for the growl that she just knew was coming. Only it didn't. Bass' first reaction was to smile, first at his internal scans and then at his technician. In a moment he was up, standing and playing with his buster, which he repeatedly activated and deactivated, enjoying the simple motion of it and pretending he was shooting at invisible enemies. Of course, he could only do this for a moment or two. Treble wanted attention, and he practically knocked Bass over. Forte joyfully wrestled his dog, not caring at all as his technician giggled at them both. Let her giggle when he felt this good!

"What the hell did you do to me?" Bass laughed. "I feel great! This is the best work you've ever done!"

Nothing was going to stop that girl from giggling. "Oh, I didn't do that much. I just replaced your power core with...dun dun dun...Zero's!"

"What?" Bass sat up, playfully shoving Treble aside so he could talk. "How did you convince the REA to let you do that?"

"Oh, you know me." she flipped her hand at him teasingly, before assuming her cute-ish airs. "I'm just a poor little girl-bot and my best friend in the whole world has a corrupted power core. Wouldn't it just _break your heart_ to see a poor little girl-bot like me all alone? Oh cruel world!"

Crystal blinked her eyes for added affect. Bass guffawed, bending over double at his ridiculous technician. "Ahahaha! Crap, you can manipulate anyone on earth, you know that?"

"That's me!" she winked. "And you know what the best part is? They actually let me have all of Zero! They brought him to the lab and I got to see him inside and out! I mean, I had to let Auto hang around or else I'd get in trouble, and I did have to give him back, but I got a nice long look at him first! And now I have so many new ways to upgrade you! I figured you'd want to wake up while I worked on your next upgrades, so don't get too used to your current level of power, okay?"

"AHAHAHAHAA!" Bass roared, lifting his clenched claws gloriously. "This is excellent!"

"Oh, and by the way, Tim Reyes said the REA wants to see a demonstration of your power. He wants to be able to show it to his bosses."

"Sure, no problem at all!" Bass jumped up, switching his left hand into a buster again. "If they want a show, I'll make sure they get one! Haha! Y'know, Sonata, right now I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."

Crystal Bot was instantly horrified, and the happiness vanished from her face as she squeaked, "Ewww! Don't say stuff like that! Humans say stuff like that, then they get married, and then they do _bad stuff_. Eeww ew ew ew!"

"Ugh, I was teasing." Bass grimaced. "Who told you about that kind of thing anyway?"

"Rock. I was trying to annoy as many people as possible with the whole 'where do babies come from' thing, but it backfired and he actually answered my question."

"Heh, better him than me."

"Urg. And now I hate him more than ever." Crystal Bot stopped, and her eyes suddenly softened. "Actually, that's not true. I really don't hate him at all."

Bass lifted an eyebrow. "What, really?"

She nodded, and her glowing smile reappeared. "He found my father. It turns out that Frantic Man was made from a backup copy of Crystal Man. I have to build him a new body, but that's not going to be too hard." A smile grew on the girl-bot's face, and she couldn't help jumping from her seat. "Everything's so wonderful now! I've got Forte-kun, and I've got my daddy back too! Yay!"

"Good for you." Bass patted her on the head, though even as he encouraged her he was only thinking of himself. Now that Crystal Man was back on Team 5, that meant his daughter wasn't one of the eight anymore, and there was no reason for her to rejoin the others. "Heh, once you're done with the Frantic Man body, install some battle A.I. in it so I can fight the guy. I've always wanted to. Fighting a guy with four robot master powers at once? Ha! Now that sounds like fun!"

"Okay!" she purred, all too eager to help. "That's no problem!"

"Alright, so how long have I been out of it?"

"Um, about four weeks..."

Bass shrugged her concern away. Four weeks wasn't as bad as four years. "Cool. So did I miss anything important?"

"Not really. We all gave testimonies to the REA about Proto Man so they can decide what to do with him, but they haven't said anything yet. They take so long to make decisions. You know how the government is. We'll probably be hearing about it soon. Oh, and um," Crystal Bot started rubbing her hands together. "I don't know if you care about this or not, but Dr. Wily is dead."

The room suddenly went cold. The smile fell from Bass' lips, leaving behind only a firm line. He blinked, looking into his technician's eyes. No, it wasn't a lie. Not a little fable to make him feel better about life. Bass didn't know what to say, or what to feel. Crystal Bot took his pause incorrectly; she immediately rushed from her chair to comfort him. She reached for his hand, but Bass snatched it away.

"Leave me alone." he snapped. "Just...just leave me alone."

Bass turned and left the room. With a sigh, Crystal Bot looked down at Treble. She patted his ears.

"You better go on after him, Trebby." she said quietly. "Make sure he's okay, alright?"

-t-

Rock was in his bedroom. That was sort of a misnomer, as unlike Roll he never saw fit to actually put a bed in there. But it was his all the same. You might call it a closet, if you looked at it, because that was basically what he used it for. The clothes he wore on occasion - mostly soccer uniforms and his tux - hung up in the actual closet with his smallest trinkets and a large collection of legos.

The rest of the room was generally more organized, because if he kept it clean Roll stayed out of it. The top part of the wall, running all around, was a little shelf that held some machine parts he tinkered with. He had a big trunk for his personal tools next to the closet in the wall farthest from the door. Under the window on the right he had a desk, which right at that moment was covered in a ton of baseball cards. Sports was definitely his thing, and his otherwise blue walls were more than half covered with soccer, football, and baseball posters.

In the middle of the floor, there was Nothing. This Nothing was very important, however, as it was the space that Mega Man used as he stretched out on the wooden floor and occupied himself with his latest hobby. Right now it was mostly clear, but a piece of miniature track reminded him that the last hobby had been trains. But now it was his Nothing again, and in that blank space the blue bomber now lay, helmetless and staring at the ceiling.

The room hadn't always looked that way. Years ago, it had looked completely different. No, the room had always been the same shape - there was less reason to renovated this room than the main labs - but there was a time when this room held a large wooden desk and several file cabinets. The window used to have little solar panels hanging on it to power little mechaniloids. Those little mechaniloids covered the floor like mice those years ago, causing Roll no end of trouble. Of course, Roll wasn't alway welcome in Dr. Wily's office.

Mega Man had a lot to think about. It was two days since Wily had died in the hospital, and Mega Man found himself thinking about the evil doctor constantly since then. It didn't feel right to mourn the man, but all the same Mega Man found himself with a strange, sad feeling lying on the bottom his stomach. He was grieved, no matter how weird that felt. He found himself missing the interesting little things Wily built in those days. Rock drew up a memory of a little clown Wily built. It was such a darling little thing that did all sorts of neat little tricks. Of course, years later the thing turned out to be the basis for Clown Man.

It had been so many years since Dr. Light and Dr. Wily worked together, in those happy days when Wily wasn't trying to take over the world. The very room that was now Rock's bedroom used to be Dr. Wily's office. Mega Man closed his eyes, recalling the images of those days. He smiled a bit. At first, the room had been impeccable. Wily never so much as sat foot in his office for all the work that occupied the doctors. Those times when he did were late at night, when Wily would stay up to frightening hours working on some blueprints. Roll would find him slumped in his chair in the morning, then give him a cheerful scolding about how unhealthy it was to stay up so late and work so hard.

Those days didn't last so long. Soon enough Wily was telling Roll to stay out of his office, accusing her of trying to steal his ideas and give them to Dr. Light for his use. Thus the file cabinets were soon full, paper began to grow in stacks that blocked the window, the carpet was a mess, and the place perpetually smelled of sweaty old man - Rock and Roll never noticed, but Dr. Light certainly did. That was when he invented his computerized smelling device so that Roll would know when to light scented candles. As much as Roll assured him that the smell of Wily was gone, Mega Man never found himself very sure.

_And then the wars began. I don't want to think about them. _Mega Man tucked his hands under his head, letting his drained eyes wander to the little ridges and crevices in the ceiling. _I wonder why all ceilings look that way. Or at least the ones in houses, anyway._

Mega Man sighed. He didn't want to think about the ceilings either. He longed for the times when Albert Wily was able to set aside his personal goals and grievances and just be part of the team. Why didn't he realize that being a part of history means being apart of something greater than yourself? That being great comes from appreciating and blessing others?

Rock drew in a long breath, trying to summon up images of the past. The lab had been reconstructed and renovated so many times that it looked nothing like it originally did, thus going to the main lab to conjure up those days was useless. Staying in that room was better, as it had changed less. He could still see it as it was in those days.

_I don't really need a bedroom..._ Rock thought. _If Wily had come back to us, he could have this room again. We made the closet larger since the original days. _

It was a silly thought, and the more he thought about it, the more he promised himself that he would never speak this thought aloud. He was too naiive, too kind-hearted, just like everybody always told him. But he was also practical, which no one said even in whispers. He was the cute little blue bomber, who shot stuff during war and then faded from the public attention span until the next fight. Rock frowned, wanting to spit. He was much more than a fighting robot. He was an intelligent, hard-working, lab-bot - that was several years out of date because he had to protect Monstropolis instead of studying up on technology.

Mega Man groaned and ran a hand through his fluffy hair. If Wily had been good, then he would be the perfectly happy robot living in Light Laboratories. He wouldn't have to be just "the great blue bomber" and be remembered as nothing more than a gun.

_What am I thinking? That's such a selfish thought. How can I think only of myself? There's much more to it than that. If Dr. Wily had only stayed with us, Monstropolis wouldn't have been destroyed so many times. The world would have been so much safer. I worked so hard to save everyone, but I couldn't save everyone...if only Wily had chosen good. So many of the dead would be alive now._ _And Proto Man would be here._

Mega Man squinched his eyes tightly shut, fighting back his sadness. So much had gone wrong. So much of what he'd wanted in life was now out of his reach. As much as his good nature told himself to think of the positive, he couldn't fight the sadness. He knew inwardly it was wrong to complain; he had his lab, his sister, Auto, and so much else good in his life. And yet how good could his life had been - and many others also - if Wily had only made the right choice?

The robot could only wonder. Instead of trying, though, he found himself wondering if he had missed something. Was Wily always headed for evil? Was there something he could have done to make Wily choose the right thing? To test this, Mega Man set up an old memory. It was his oldest memory of Dr. Wily, the very day that the two of them met.

**Mega Man happy sauntered into the main lab - he was far too happy for a plain walk. He wandered into the lab, giggling to himself. Dr. Light had to go out to a meeting that day, but he wasn't alone. Dr. Light's partner was in the lab today, and Rock was going to meet him for the first time. Rock liked meeting new people, so he eager opened the doors to the main lab.**

**Normally the long hall with its eight repair tables stretched out across the back wall was more organized. Obviously though, Roll hadn't been in the room in a long time. Mechanical parts lay about the room, and countless bolts and screws littered the tile. That tile had once been white, but both doctors had spilled so much oil and grease and whatnot all over the floor that white was hardly a proper description any longer. At least the long telescreen on the other wall seemed clear, and the consoles/counterspace beneath it were cleared out. Not so much as a drink was next to any of the sensitive keyboards.**

**"Hmmm-hmm-hmm...hmmm hmm!" Mega Man merrily hummed. "Oh?"**

**There he was, the new doctor that was helping build his friends! Mega Man boldly went up to the grey-headed older man. The human stood over the fourth repair table, the one that held the not yet complete Guts Man. The wrinkled face of the doctor lifted as Mega Man approached, though he seemed a little...confused? Upset? Hungry? Mega Man wished he was better at telling faces. **

**"Hi there!" Mega Man stuck out his hand. "You must be Dr. Albert Wily! My creator told me all about you! I'm Rock! I'm your technical assistant! Well, yours and Dr. Light's."**

**Wily didn't shake Rock's hand, and Mega Man found himself confused. **_**Is that a look of anger? No...too weak. Maybe it was that long word, um, yeah, disgruntled! I like that word. Disgruntled, disgruntled, disgruntled!**_

**"I already know that." Wily scoffed. "I helped build you."**

**"Oh yeah, I forgot." Mega Man giggled. "Dr. Light had to redo my memory complex yesterday, but I'm all ready to go now! So what can I do to help you, Dr. Wily? You're the boss!"**

**Wily smiled at this statement, and Rock did too. He knew what a happy face was. "Well, you can get me a cup of coffee. I need to be bright and awake so that I can finish these arms for Guts Man. He'll be able to lift two tons when I'm through with him!"**

_**That's weird.**_** Rock thought. **_**Roll's usually the one that does stuff like get coffee. Oh, but she's not here right now, she went to the store. I don't mind.**_

**"Okay, sure!" Rock chirped merrily. "I'll be right back! Oh, sugar or creamer?"**

**"No, boy, no! Just bring it black!"**

Mega Man snorted. He didn't recognize it at the time, but now it was unbearably obvious Wily couldn't stand him. That first day Wily had him running around like a gopher. It didn't matter that Rock could install arms or armor. Wily didn't seem to want to give him anything serious to do. He wanted all the work for himself. Mega Man politely tried to bring this up (oh, he was _ever so_ polite), but that got only yelling and a screaming order to get out. Mega Man felt like blushing as he remembered what he did next: go huddle in a back corner of Dr. Light's "library" and wait until his real creator got home.

**Dr. Light switched on the lights for his document-stuffed library, quite blithe as he entered the room and promptly crammed more blueprints into the already overstuffed shelves. One he kept to himself and thudded onto his desk. the only thing in the room not covered in a million papers - it was more like a half-million. But as Dr. Light went around to sit, he noticed his creation huddling in the corner, staring up with wide, pitiful eyes.**

**"Rock?" Light got down to better speak to his creation. "What are you doing there?"**

**"It's Dr. Wily..." Rock snuffled, breathing hard as he tried to speak. "He was mean...he said I'm a dumb robot, and he...he doesn't need me getting in his way. And he said a bunch of bad words too. He doesn't like me."**

**The pouting robot hunched down, but his innocent eyes still looked to his master for some explanation. Dr. Light sighed.**

**"Please forgive him, Rock. Dr. Wily isn't used to working with robots. No one is. You're a new innovation. He's a stubborn old man, Rock, and you're just going to have to show him that you're a hard worker and he'll accept you." **

**Dr. Light became thoughtful at this point, and the way his eyes sank back Rock knew he was thinking about sad times. Rock didn't like that look. He was very grateful when it passed and Dr. Light continued.**

**"There are many who will have a hard time accepting you, Rock, and I didn't want to hide it from you. I had hoped Wily...but none of that now. I'll talk to him, then next time you come on duty you can help me the whole time. Once he sees how skilled you are, he'll become your friends. Real friendship takes time."**

**"Really?" when Dr. Light smiled, it made Rock very happy. He sat up straight. "I'll do it, Dr. Light! I'll work really hard and be super nice and then Dr. Wily will be my friend!"**

**"That's a good boy." Dr. Light said. "Now come on. I want you to get started on him some mechaniloids for the mining company. I'll talk to Dr. Wily while you're doing that."**

**"Yes, Dr. Light!" Rock began to stand up. "Thanks, I feel better now."**

"Rock?"

Mega Man lifted his head from its resting spot and saw that Roll was at the door. "Oh hey, come on in."

The girl-bot entered and went over to the wall at Rock's right, kicking the piece of train track aside. She leaned against the wall, relaxing and letting her legs stretch out in front of her. She set her hands in her lap, then poked at her brother with her toe.

"Hey, stop that." Mega Man teased, swatting away her foot. "So what brings you to the Mega Room?"

"Guh, I told you not to call it that..."

They both chuckled. Not for long, though. Like the way an open door brings in the cold on a winter day, Roll had brought with herself a stiff wind of solemnity. And the room was pretty solemn enough already, the way Rock was thinking.

"I wanted to check on you." Roll said. "You've been in here for four hours."

"Yeah, I'm still taking some time off." Mega Man said. "I deserve it, don't I? I don't feel like doing anything today."

"Bass is awake. I thought about telling you to say hi to him, but he went off by himself. He knows about Wily. I can't imagine how weird he must feel. Think you should talk to him?"

"No, he won't want me bothering him." Mega Man stared at the roof. "I'm really glad he's back in order though. I don't know what I would've done if the REA hadn't let him have the power core."

"What have you been doing in here all day?" Roll asked. "Aren't you bored?"

"Bored? No. Not really. I want to do something, but everytime I try...well, I started setting up my old trains, but I didn't want to do that. I don't want to draw cartoons, or read up on the next programming language, or look at crime reports to see what I need to do next. I just want to sit and think, so that's what I've been doing."

Roll let her head slump to the side as she shook it. "I can imagine why."

"I was just thinking about how things were when he was here." Mega Man had no need to say who that "he" was. "When I first met him. It didn't go well."

"I can imagine." Roll repeated, the dark tones of her words making her voice quiet. "I think I met him a little earlier than you. Heh. The very first thing he said to me was 'make sure you get two percent milk, not that nasty skim'."

Mega Man managed a chortle at that. "He was pretty insistent. He wasn't all bad though. He helped me learn how to make foot engines. And there was even a time or two when I thought Wily actually appreciated me. When me, him, and Dr. Light finished Bomb Man, it felt like a real achievement. We were really partners. And then that horrible reporter came and called Wily the lab assistant. I never told anyone this, but I was so jealous that the reporter called Wily the lab assistant instead of me. I tried to tell Wily, but by then he didn't care." Mega Man sighed and sat up. "I think that really was the turning point. That one interview was what started everything. Maybe if it hadn't happened...well, I don't know."

"Wily was always evil." Roll leaned her head on her knees. "It wasn't that interview, and it wasn't the Nobel Peace Prize. It was him. He had the capacity for evil, and he followed through on it. It's nobody's fault but his own."

Mega Man bit his lip. If talking to her would do any good, then he would, but she was caught up in her own darkness. Did Wily do something to her? It puzzled him that Roll could be so harsh, even to Wily. For the moment though, he just scooted over beside Roll and put an arm around her.

"Yes, it was his fault." Rock said. "It was his choice. He could have been so much more. Wily had the potential to be something great, something that would actually benefit the world. He had friendship with Dr. Light, a place in these labs, all the grant money he would ever need, and his own intelligence. Wily threw all that away for the sake of his ego. It was the dumbest choice he ever made, and almost everything he's ever done had to be destroyed. That, Roll, is the saddest story I know."

Roll looked up at her brother, surprised to see that he wanted to cry.

-t-

The sun shone brightly on the California hillside, giving warmth and energy to the crisp, green grass and the fluttering dandelions. This was the landscape of at least two acres: bright, hilly, and full of life. Even the little bugs crawled out of their homes with extra merriness, glad for another sunshiney day. Or else that was how he saw it from his position at the top of the tallest hill. To him, the dandelions weren't weeds. They were nice little spots of yellow, dotted everywhere and surrounding him in a sea of the happiest color in existence. Considering that he was the happiest robot in existence, it was entirely appropriate.

Proto Man sat there in the grass, wiggling his feet for happiness. Instead of on his head, his helmet rested on the grass beside him. Somehow the sun felt warmer when it was on his metaloid skin. He didn't want to hide his face anymore. He didn't have any reason to. This was the way Dr. Light created him, and he wanted to be that way again. Never before in his life did he feel so free and so clean. His shame was gone.

Also, so were the charges. The Robotic Ethics Agency were government officials, but they weren't completely stupid. How could someone like Proto Man be condemned? True, he had done so many wrong things. But all of it was eclipsed by his good deeds, how he'd helped Mega Man save the earth, disrupted sex trafficking rings, and even provided the government with information about international threats. One of the REA agents even found out during the proceedings that Proto Man had indirectly rescued his son two years ago.

With so much on his side, Proto Man really shouldn't have been so surprised that the President noticed. And yet Proto Man recalled with bliss his surprise when the public announcement was made: Proto Man was to be pardoned for the majority of his charges. Not much was said about the specifics (for which Blues was very thankful), but it was now all over the news that his pardon had gone through. Other countries had heard about it, and right away Japan pardoned him completely. Proto Man wasn't at all shocked. Japan had always liked him, and very few non-corrupted Japanese officials ever bothered to try and find him - and that was usually to ask him to do something about a yakuza.

Of course, it wasn't all dandelions and sunshine for Proto Man, happy as he was. The pardon was not full; he still had consequences ahead of him. Proto Man didn't mind that so much. After all, he wasn't the most trusted robot on the planet, and he would have to rebuild that lost trust. It was only natural. Proto Man swatted his hand in the air as if to wipe away the concern.

_It doesn't matter. I can face anything now! _Proto Man wiggled his feet again with delight, not caring how uncharacteristic and just plain silly it was. _Heh, I bet it was 'Uncle Harry' that told the President about me. He never gave the President a moment's rest, I'll bet!_

It was like a holiday to Proto Man, or perhaps he'd never really had a holiday before. Minor holidays were nothing to him, he never bothered about his birthday, and Christmas...well, he'd never been with his family on Christmas. Maybe it was for that reason he felt this way for the very first time. Like it was Christmas Eve, and the day itself was only just out of reach. Blues gazed happily over the hills. He was taking the more scenic route to Light Laboratories, reveling in the distance. Christmas Day was not a time, it was a place just over the next few hills before him, right past the forest he could just barely see over the hilly horizon. The government was going to let him see his family.

But first things first. Proto Man was simply enjoying this moment too much to just get on with it. He could teleport home any time he wanted, and he wanted to calm down a little first, as well as enjoy this marvelous day.

_Home..._ he mused, staring into that beautiful distance. _I'm going home..._

For the moment, he wasn't. Instead he engaged his radio receiver. He wanted to hear the news. His pardon was still going about on the radio, and the last time he checked, the King of England had just asked Parliament to pardon Proto Man for the crimes done in their country. While Blues had no doubts he would be (he hadn't done very much evil in Britain during those bad years), he still tuned his receiver to the news channels anyway, eagerly awaiting the news. Maybe he'd hear about another country pardoning him. Now that America and Japan had, it was all dominoes from there.

_" - ...All very happy to hear that, Pat. - " _said a male radio announcer. _" - We can only imagine how our blue bomber must feel this week. First his greatest enemy dies, and now his brother is officially pardoned... - "_

_WHAT? _Proto Man exclaimed inwardly. Outwardly he only gave a gasp barely loud enough to be heard by the anthill at his foot. _'His greatest enemy'...dead?_

Blues only knew of one person who could be called Mega Man's greatest enemy, and Proto Man immediately searched the internet for more information. It was true. Dr. Albert Wily, born 19XX, had died of heart failure and a slew of other problems in 20XX. He'd been dead for two whole days. Proto Man sat there in the grass, stunned. And then he laughed. He laughed so loud it echoed over the hills.

This was wonderful news, the proverbial cherry on his happiness sundae. As much as Proto Man knew it was wrong to be glad of a person's death, but to him Wily wasn't a person. It wasn't a matter of Wily being too bad to be considered human. Wily had been to him the embodiment of evil. Wily was the doorman for the Wrong Door, not only opening it for Proto Man, but tripping him as he passed through it, only for Blues to fall down the metaphorical flight of stairs on the other side. Blues couldn't blame Dr. Wily for his own sins, but Wily had been there all the same, saying with deviously clever words all the things that would make Blues his unwitting pawn. Those horrid words were so effective that Wily never bothered to reprogram Proto Man, even though the doctor had a lot of chances to do it. Even from day one, Wily always seemed to twist and manipulate Proto Man's feelings. The man truly was a genius of evil.

**Proto Man huddled in the alley, behind the dumpster. He shook, trying to make his body stabilize itself. It refused to get back into line, no matter what he did to control his regulator. One moment he would have barely enough power to remain conscious, and the next moment it was running so hard he thought he was going to explode. **

**Proto Man pushed himself against the brick wall, wishing that he'd stayed at Dr. Light's lab like he was told. He should have at least waited until Dr. Light found a way to fix his power core before running away. Blues sucked in a breath and tried to calculate how much time he had left until his power core burned out and if he could make it all the way back to Dr. Light's lab. As much as the thought of going back there pained him, he knew he couldn't go on like this. **

**Just as the runaway robot resolved to go back home, his power core shot steeply downwards. His stabilizers failed, and he slipped to the ground with a loud bang. Proto Man could hardly hear the sound of it, and he definitely couldn't hear the quiet shufflings of...something, as that something came nearer. A long shadow interrupted the streetlight drifting into the alley. Proto Man, shaking, could barely look up as he saw a human approaching him.**

**"Stay away from me...please. It's not safe...not safe..."**

**What seemed like an instant later, Proto Man found himself in a completely different location. He was in some sort of basement, and not a very neat one. The table on which he lay was just that: an ordinary wooden kitchen table, nothing so sophisticated as the repair tables that Dr. Light had in his lab. There were lots of machine parts around him, and like always, Blues didn't know what they were. There were also some magazines scattered on the floor, but he avoided looking at them. The old couch and messy desk only barely registered in Proto Man's mind. All he wanted was to get out of there. Oh, the stairs were on the far wall-**

**"Ah, so you're awake."**

**"Augh!" Proto Man cried out, rolling off the table. **

**He saw so much of the room to his right that he forgot to look left. And left was where the human stood, the same one as before. Proto Man jumped up, ready to bolt if something bad happened. The human didn't appear too frightening, though. He was just an older guy, with admittedly wild and scruffy hair that stuck out to the left and right. The human calmly stood there with his hands in his lab coat pockets, inspecting the robot with curious but casual eyes.**

**"Don't you feel much better now?" the human said in his thick, Austrian accent. "I set up your power core properly, and it's running on nuclear power now. Don't worry, I have better labs than this. I **_**am**_** a genius, for you information. I just wanted to complete you in the privacy of my own home."**

**"I know that voice." Proto Man said slowly. "You're Dr. Wily, that guy that Dr. Light was talking to on the phone."**

**"Ah, that must mean you're Blues. I always thought that was a strange name."**

**Proto Man didn't know how to answer, so he just nodded. **

**"So you are feeling better?"**

**Proto Man nodded again.**

**"Good." Wily stepped out from behind the table. "It's not a permanent fix, I'm afraid, but it should hold you for a long time."**

**The robot stepped back as the doctor got closer, holding his hands out in front of him. "Please don't make me go back to Dr. Light. I don't want to."**

**"Make you? You're a robot and I'm a weak, unarmed human." Wily laughed. "How am I supposed to **_**make**_** you do anything?"**

**"...I don't know..."**

**"Exactly! Now tell me, why exactly don't you want to go back to Thomas' lab?"**

**Proto Man thought it was a bit disrespectful of Wily to refer to Dr. Light by his first name, but then he remembered that the two were friends. "Um, well, he never stands up for me. These government people come in, and they boss me around. I don't want to listen to them anymore." Blues' voice grew more confident as he went on. "I'm tired of being stuck in that stupid lab all the time. I want to go where I want and do what I want! Only I can't with my power core the way it is."**

**He wished that Wily would stop laughing his crazy laugh. It was getting on his nerves.**

**"Of course you can! I've set up your power core the right way. You'll have years of exploring before you start having problems again, and by then I'll have figured out something permanent. I **_**am**_** a genius, you know!"**

**"So...you're not going to tell Dr. Light on me?"**

**"No, why would I do that?" **

**"Well, I heard on the phone that you're going to be working at the lab with him. Don't you have to tell him?"**

**"Eh," Wily shrugged. "Call it an experiment in artificial intelligence. How is Dr. Light supposed to know how well you work if he doesn't give you the chance to make choices on your own? Just don't tell him I let you go, and both of us will stay out of trouble. He might lecture me for two straight hours if you went back and told on me." Suddenly, Wily frowned, narrowing his eyes to peer suspiciously at the mechanical person. "Just my luck, you're exactly that kind of robot that would tell on me, aren't you?"**

**"I am not!" he insisted, remembering the sort of lectures that he too got from Dr. Light. "I would never tattle!"**

**"Hahaha! Now that's good of you!" Wily slapped him on the back, gently enough against the metal person. "I should have known that you're a trustworthy fellow! Here, let me show you something."**

**Wily went over to the table, pulling out from under it something that Proto Man hadn't noticed before. It was his own helmet, repainted and fitted with a visor. Wily plopped this atop Proto Man's head and then got out a grey cloth, long and thin.**

**"Oops, my mistake." Wily said, removing the helmet again and setting it on the table. "I should put on the mask first. Hold still. Once I wrap this around your face, no one will recognise you, and you can do as you want without Dr. Light finding you. Alright, and now the helmet again."**

**Once the helmet was again in place, Wily stepped back and inspected his work with a satisfactory hum. "That should work. Now go on, explore the world! Have a little fun for once. And if you don't mind, stop by to see me once in a while and tell me how things are going. I spend too much of my time in labs these days to look at the world too often. Come by and tell an old man some good stories, alright?"**

**"Okay." Proto Man said, feeling a lot better about this venture. "But I don't have any money to do anything."**

**"Ha, that's alright." Wily said. "Use your wits to earn your way. This should get you started."**

**Wily pulled out of his pocket a few crisp twenties, and placed them in Proto Man's hand. The robot smiled at him, but of course Wily couldn't see that through his mask. **

**"Thanks a lot, Dr. Wily." Proto Man said. "I will come back to talk to you...but...I don't have to talk to Dr. Light, do I?"**

**"Not if you don't want to." Wily reassured him, leading him to the steps that led out of the basement and into the wide world. "Now go on! Have a good time, and try not to get into too much trouble."**

**"I won't!"**

Proto Man shuddered. He hoped that Wily's speech was the sort that could fool anybody, and that he wasn't dumb for falling for it. After all, Wily had helped him out. Who wouldn't listen? Those subtle words did much damage without Blues realizing it for a long time. They pretty much were all to say, "hey, it's you and me against Dr. Light, that awful man". It put a wedge between Blues and his creator for years, and the wedge even lasted well beyond the days when Proto Man actually believed any of the words that came out of Dr. Wily's mouth.

And, in fact, Proto Man did visit Wily occasionally those years ago, before Wily's official change to evil. He did tell Wily stories of the rest of the world, just as the old man had asked. Now that Proto Man's mind was experienced enough to understand humans, he understood all too well that Wily faked enthusiasm in Proto Man's pathetic stories. They weren't much more than "I helped a guy jump his car" or "people in Texas dress funny" so why would Wily be interested?

When Wily told him that those six rebellious robots of Team 1 had gone crazy on their own because of Dr. Light's faulty programming, Proto Man bought it. He bought that Wily had been framed for this and thrown into prison unjustly. After all, most humans weren't nice, he believed. Later on, Proto Man also bought that Wily's next eight robots were meant to keep Dr. Light's robots in line, only Dr. Light had Mega Man destroy them out of jealousy. After all, if Dr. Light's first six had gone insane, nothing stopped his later robots from doing the same. Actually, it was at that point that Proto Man began to have doubts in Dr. Wily. Those nice, precious doubts, each one more valuable than a diamond. If only he'd listened to them.

From the dark and the distance Proto Man had watched his younger brother, despising him as a shallow "hero of good" who wasn't programmed to do more than shoot at whoever Dr. Light named. The occasions when he saw Roll were even worse. That poor robot housekeeper, slave to Dr. Light. From time to time Proto Man would think of liberating her, only to believe that she would just run right back to Light because of her programming. If only he heeded his doubts! If Dr. Light programmed him to be kind enough to want to liberate his sister, then surely his siblings were programmed to be nice as well. It was only logical, and didn't he pride himself on his logic?

Then Team 3 was made. At this point, Proto Man felt pretty sure Wily wasn't entirely truthful. After all, if Dr. Light framed him or destroyed his robots from jealousy, why in the world would Wily partner up with him? Of course the little red robot had to go and ask his "friend" why he was doing this. Wily, at the time, claimed that it was Dr. Light's idea to create Gamma, and that he partnered up with Dr. Light to be able to stop Light from having one huge robot with which to threaten the world.

Proto Man bought it. As much as he hated himself for this, he actually believed Wily. Should he have known better? Yes. Did that stop him from "helping" when Dr. Wily asked for his assistance? No. No, no no. And then he became guilty of the worst crime a robot could commit, all because he believed a foolish old man. That same night, as Wily and Team 3 planned for their scheme in the third Skull Castle, Proto Man dared to ask Wily the question that weighed on his mind ever since.

**Proto Man entered the chamber. It was huge - Blues often wondered how Wily built his castles so quickly. In any case, this vast room contained very little. It was an empty, circular area (far too vast to simply be a "room"), three floors high, with a balcony on the second floor and a few movable balconies on the third so that Gamma could be engineered properly. Yes, that ugly, gargantuan machine was there, with its large arms and two drill spikes sticking out of its head. Proto Man dared to sneer at it as he walked by.**

**"Air Man," Wily said to his fan-bot, as he and the rest of Team 3 gathered on the second floor balcony, discussing their plans. "You need to get to the sky fortress. Your mechaniloid army awaits you in room 3B of this castle. Can you secure it by nine in the morning?"**

**"I sure can." Air Man spun his fan for effect. "Count on me!"**

**"Ah, there you are." Wily poked his head over the others, directing his comment at the approaching Proto Man. "Get over here. I need your help."**

**Proto Man paused a moment, not answering the doctor. He rubbed his arm with uncertainty, coming only close enough to just barely enter the circle of robot masters. As hesistant as he was, he figured he might as well say what he had to say. At least Dr. Wily was paying attention to him for once.**

**"Um, Dr. Wily, I have a question."**

**"Yes, what is it?" Wily's voice got impatient. "Hurry it up."**

**"Well, I was just wondering." Proto Man began to feel more and more uncomfortable. Wily's glare was bad enough, but now the members of Team 3 stared at him. "Is all this really worth it? Will capturing Gamma really make the earth a safer place? I mean, I thought we were going to destroy him-"**

**The entire group burst into laughter, and much to Blues' horror that meant Wily as well. He stared at the scientist, his mouth hanging open. That only made the laughing worse. Needle Man and Magnet Man had to hold each other up, they were laughing so hard.**

**"Ah haw haw, haw haw!" boomed Hard Man. "What a little baby! Going through all that trouble only to destroy Gamma? Haw, haw!"**

**"Isn't it about time you stopped fooling yourself, Proto Man?" Wily said, a little disdainfully. "Destroy a powerful weapon like Gamma? Phah! He's the key to conquering the earth! I need him for my plans."**

**Proto Man felt as if he were choking. He backed away a couple of steps. "But wait, you said-"**

**"Lies. All lies." Wily glared, the deceptive softness gone from his face. "And naiive little Proto Man actually bought it. Don't be stupid. You've been stupid enough already. I'm going to take over the world, and you're going to help me do it, just like the times you helped me before."**

**"No!" Blues insisted. "No, I'm not!"**

**"Oh, then what are you going to do? Turn me in to the police? What about when they find out that you were the one who helped us get Light's security codes for Gamma? What if they found out that you were the one that provided me with what I needed to fight Dr. Light those other two times? Don't forget. You've been my spy since day one. It's about time you realized that."**

**"Plus," Shadow Man added, smugly folding his arms. The normally emotionless robot seemed to enjoy tormenting Proto Man just as much as his master. "He killed a security guard."**

**"What?" Wily lifted an eyebrow, starting to get amused. His confident, hateful sneer settled on his victim. He had Blues right where he wanted him. "Well then, there's no turning back for you now, Proto Man. Do you really think Dr. Light is going to let you come home after you **_**murdered**_** someone? No, he'll turn you over to the police to be turned into scrap metal, just like you deserve. You're not his little blue hero. He doesn't **_**need **_**you. Dr. Light would be ashamed of you if he knew. It's not as if you're a **_**good **_**robot. You're a wanted criminal now, like it or not."**

**Proto Man started to shake. "I...I'll run away!"**

**"Do that then. But who's going to repair you when you get hurt? When you need your oil changed? Nobody. You're a spy and a murderer now, and so I'm the only one that will ever help you. Now get over here and do as you're told."**

**Proto Man ran out of the door, Team 3's laughter chasing him as he went. He overheard Shadow Man behind him, asking if he needed to catch their runaway. Wily said no, but by that point Blues was too far out of the door to hear anything else. He didn't care. Proto Man ran as fast as his legs could carry him through the hallways, pitfalls, and mechaniloids scattered about the castle. **

**Proto Man didn't notice any of them. He kept running and running, until finally he was outside of the Skull Castle and into the night air of the high mountain where the castle loomed over the innocent countryside. That countryside went unnoticed by the robot. Not knowing what else to do, Proto Man glitched. The emotional strain was too much on his power regulator, and he made himself sit in the dead grass, leaning against the wall of that terrible place. All the same, he just couldn't stop the glitching. **

_**I'm a murderer...**_** he sobbed. **_**Dr. Light must be so ashamed of me...I should never have run away! I'm just so stupid! Why do I always do the wrong thing?**_

**The robot wasn't so sure how long he sat out there like that, dwelling in his horrible thoughts and glitching away at the pain of it all. The glitches subsided as he got his regulator functioning properly, but still he sat there, numb to the world and uncertain of everything. He forced down the tormenting emotions, making them be silent and bother him no more. He needed to think, and for once he wanted to do this without his stupid emotions getting in the way. **

**After a while - a long one, it seemed - Spark Man peeped his head out the door.**

**"Hello? Proto Man?"**

**Proto Man sniffed, not objecting as the orange electricity-bot came and sat down beside him. Spark Man sat there silently, patiently saying nothing. To Proto Man, this meant a lot. After a moment, he felt comfortable enough to speak.**

**"I really did kill him." Proto Man said. "I don't even know who it was. Just some security guy doing his job. He never did anybody any harm. I wish...I wish I hadn't done it."**

**Spark Man seemed to understand. He put an electrode rod on Proto Man's shoulder, hoping it came across as friendly. **

**"We all have masters to follow." he said softly. "And some of us are less lucky than others."**

**"But I had a choice." Proto Man looked up at him. "I could have stayed with Dr. Light. Then I wouldn't be in this mess right now."**

**"I don't know what to tell you." Spark Man sighed. "We're all trapped in this now, no matter what we were before. I used to power up the Gamma project before, you know. I'm the one that destroyed the electric systems at the storage facility. That's how Wily got into it in the first place. I'm guilty too. I don't know if that makes you feel better, but you're not alone."**

**Strangely enough, that did make Proto Man feel better. Marginally. It didn't erase the fact that someone was dead because of him. Proto Man felt more sick than ever. Why had he trusted Wily? Wily was a simple human, just like those annoying government people, Renold Davis and Harry Briggs. Just like Dr. Light. When **_**hadn't**_** a human betrayed him?**

**"Spark Man, do we have some way out of this?" Proto Man found himself asking. "Isn't there any way to escape?"**

**"Not alive." Spark Man shook his head. "We'll be scrapped."**

**"...Oh."**

**The two robots sat in silence. After a moment, Spark Man shifted uncomfortably. "Hey, um, Wily sent me out here to get you. He wants you to follow Mega Man and track what he does. I can tell him that you ran off."**

**Proto Man looked up at the dark night sky, and with a deep sigh, he spoke again. **

**"Where would I go?"**

**With that, the two robots got up from the ground, neither of them in too much of a rush. Spark Man stared at Proto Man uncertainly, but the latter did nothing. He only followed Proto Man back into the Skull Castle. **

**He gave up.**

Hey wait, why was Proto Man shuddering? Why did he hold his arms tightly like that, as if there was no one in the world he could trust? It was _now_, not several years ago. And now was not the worst night of his life. It wasn't even a night at all. It was a bright daytime, where the wind blew through the dandelions, making each one shake their blossomed heads at him for being silly enough to think of the extinct past. Didn't the sun shine down on him, and not the moon's futile light? He was pardoned, and free!

Blues laughed. The sting of his past was gone. Proto Man felt like a growing blade of grass that absorbed the sun's rays and rejoiced in it. He fell back into the soft, unmowed grass around him, trying to absorb as much of the sun as possible. Proto Man felt a bright warmth filling him. Albert Wily was gone! His guilt was gone! Let no one accuse him any longer or try to shame him! Before he knew it, Blues was laughing. And he shook, shaking so hard from happiness.

Blues settled down a moment later, happily lounging away. It occured to him that as wonderful as it was for his crimes to be pardoned, and how liberating it was that his accuser was dead, both things would mean nothing without one last thing. Proto Man wasn't one much to care about listening to the government, and Wily's words could live beyond him if the didn't have the one thing in the world that could silence those insistent accusations.

**Proto Man's eyes opened. He was activated, and before he could fully register what was around him, several grey-sleeved arms were pulling at him, forcing him to his feet. Proto Man got up as he was bidden, too confused to resist, and without so much as an explanation (but with much murmuring) the REA men and robots hustled Blues through the endless barren passageways made only the more eerie by the orange-ish flourescent lights.**

**"What's going on?" Blues asked.**

**"It's time for you to go." a guard answered, too distracted by the rush of the crowd to answer properly. "We're almost out."**

**Utterly confused, the Light-bot could only wonder if this meant he was going off to be deleted or if the REA guards wanted him to escape. Whichever motive it was, Proto Man couldn't resist them. The many arms and firearms of the guards would see to that. Strangely enough, though guns hung at the hips of the guards, not one pointed at Blues. It seemed all the more likely they wanted him to escape.**

**"I can't leave." Proto Man protested. "I have to face justice."**

**"You already have." The same guard as before answered him, this time taking a moment to actually look at Proto Man, and even to smile. "Justice has spoken."**

**The guards pulled Proto Man though the outer doors of Sacremento's REA headquarters - Proto Man recognised it almost immediately. As the guards departed from him and cleared from view, he recognised more than just his location. There in front of him was the last person he ever expected to see: Leila Copenhagen. She stood there quietly in the street beside a grinning Harry Briggs.**

**Leila's anger was gone. Instead it was replaced by a sadness...sort of. Her eyes, filled with gentleness, widened with uncomfortable concern as Proto Man was brought to her. Even more to Proto Man's surprise, the guards around him left. They didn't stay to watch him. Blues barely noticed this. All he saw was Leila, and in that instant he knew that something had gone from her.**

**"Let me be the first to congratulate you." Briggs said, never comfortable being ignored. Proto Man didn't look at the man, but he could hear the grin in his voice. "You've got your pardon."**

**"Wait, what?"**

**"I spoke to the judge." Leila explained, wringing her hands but otherwise showing only determination. "I told them everything you've ever done for me. I told them not to press charges."**

**"But...why?" **

**Proto Man could hardly believe what he was hearing, but sure enough, it was happening. As Leila continued, she pulled the yellow scarf - his yellow scarf - out of her purse and began to tie it around the robot's neck.**

**"Because I know who you are." she said. "You've always been there for me and Mom since the beginning. You were there so long that I know you're weren't doing it just out of guilt. You cared about us. Besides, what would Mega Man do without you?"**

**Leila finished adjusting the scarf, and with one final tug she lowered her hands. He was surprised to see tears in her eyes as she stepped back.**

**"I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I feel pretty weird about...being your friend again. All I know is, a world where you don't show up and save the day is wrong."**

**The girl struggled to speak, and the tears were pouring down. Proto Man hadn't cried in years, but somehow the urge to succumb to glitching crept up on him nonetheless. Still, Leila struggled onward, and Proto Man could only listen and wait.**

**"I forgive you."**

There it was. The three simple words that could reduce everything Albert Wily ever said to ashes. It was the only thing Proto Man had ever wanted to hear, and now his most daring dream had come true. He was forgiven; he was free. All those years of struggling with guilt were over, and he never again had to face his inner demons. Somehow, happy as he was, Proto Man found himself wanting to cry. A stray thought reminded him of his creator. For so long that horrible crime kept him separated from his father. Dr. Light had never known Blues' past, and now the robot realized that Dr. Light never wanted to know. All the scientist wanted was his son to come home. Now it was all over, and there was nothing between the loner robot and his creator.

"Oh, Father..."

Proto Man cried. He glitched his heart out, for the first time able to mourn the loss of his father. His emotions were no longer locked away without a key. Such weeping didn't hurt him. It was cleansing to finally let it go. Proto Man didn't know how long he cried, but as the glitching finally ceased, Proto Man was still happy. He wriggled his feet in the grass like a merry child.

A question popped up in his mind, and his hand went to his helmet laying beside him. His helmet had served him well over the years, hiding both him from the world and the world from him. As good as he felt, Proto Man was still iffy about the government knowing what he looked like. He touched his face uncertainly.

_Oh, what the heck. _Blues grinned. _I'm not going to change it. This is the way my father designed me._

Still, he glanced down at his helmet. He didn't need to hide anymore, but so much of the public knew him by his helmet. It was iconic. But, at the end of the day, he didn't need it anymore. He found himself not even wanting to wear it. He would, though. His public demanded it.

For now, Proto Man lay back in the grass, letting all thoughts drain away as he enjoyed his newfound freedom.

-t-

It was dark. Very dark. It didn't matter that sunlight shone merrily through the blinds. To Bass it was as dark as night, and he only glared at the impudent sunlight for intruding. It seemed to want to shine down right into his little hiding spot behind Dr. Light's desk. That was where Bass sat on the floor, so no one could see him if they entered. Treble lay beside him, silent and still, letting Bass unconsciously rub at his ears.

Forte was back in the "library" again. It was the only place that he could really be alone with his thoughts. It was more or less an excuse for Dr. Light's office when he had been alive, but since then Rock and Roll rarely went inside it. For now the finally organized shelves of blueprints, notes, and other paper whatnot were as close to having Dr. Light around as was possible. This aura of Light eased Bass' discomfort only somewhat.

Discomfort was definitely the correct word for how Bass felt. He couldn't get comfortable. While he had only a robotic set vibration detectors and not a real sense of touch, somehow he just couldn't relax. Bass scooted closer against the desk. It didn't work. After a minute of fidgeting, he gave up, slouching against the desk and giving Treble one final rub across the ears before letting his hand fall.

His creator was dead. The robot numbly thought of this, trying to reconcile it in his head. Somehow it didn't seem possible. Bass had spent so much time avoiding Wily that he couldn't really tell the difference between Wily being alive or dead. Only now he knew he would never see his creator again. This thought stirred no reaction; Bass was completely numb. He waited a moment, expecting to have some sort of emotion about it. Nothing came. Only an empty raw feeling lay inside him.

Bass folded his arms tightly, angry at his own indifference. His lip rose into a sneer. _Hell, I should be happy! After all, Wily was an old bastard. All he ever did was mock me and build junk robots. How the hell am I supposed to be sad? He just built team after team of pathetic losers, letting them fight for him when I was right there! He could have just asked me! He didn't have to kick me out of his castle every time! But no, he just had to go build those losers. They could get destroyed by Rock just like that _- here Bass snapped his fingers in the air - _and I actually put up a decent fight, but no, __**I'm**__ the one that gets punished and made fun of and never gets a decent upgrade!_

Bass tried to punch the rolling chair, but it just undramatically fell over with the blow. He was forced to violently elbow the desk behind him to satisfy his rage. After a moment he paused, fearing someone might have heard him.

_Oh hell, who cares?_

The robot elbowed the desk one last time for good measure, denting a drawer in the process. Whining, Treble lifted his head onto Bass' leg. Bass sighed. Treble never liked it when he got angry. With an annoyed sigh, Bass half-heartedly patted his dog twice and no more. He wasn't in the mood to be comforting. Trouble was, he wasn't sure what he was in the mood for. He knew he needed to deal with his sadness somehow. But how?

_Wait, what?_ Bass startled. _I'm sad? Why the hell am I sad? I don't have a reason to be. Wily was a jerk and he deserves to be dead. Screw him. I don't give a crap about him!_

That was a lie, and he knew it. Bass so very much wanted it to be true. He didn't want to care about Wily. He didn't want that crusty old maniac affecting him one way or the other. After all, he was the great and strong Bass, and what did a simple frail human matter to the great and strong Bass? More than Bass wanted to admit, that's for sure. He forced himself to sit up straight and think. He forced his emotions and thoughts to focus properly on the matter. Now, was he sad that Wily was dead?

The effort didn't pay off. He wasn't sure what he felt. Just...off. He was sad, though, and there was no denying it. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He had plenty to be happy about. He had his dog, his technician, and Zero's power core. That last blessing was even enough to make his deep frown turn into a nice smile for about two seconds. That smile went away. Wily was dead, and he didn't want to smile. As much as he wanted to add Wily's dead to his list of good things that happened to him, he couldn't.

_Screw this. I am not going to sit here and mourn that man! He doesn't deserve it._

All the same, Bass found himself wanting to glitch. It wasn't so strange a thought. After all, here he was sitting against the desk, just like he had been when Dr. Light died. Bass let his thoughts drift off to the nicer scientist - it was much more relaxing to think of Dr. Light rather than his own creator. Bass pulled up a knee and rested his head on it. He could only wonder what it had been like to be raised by Dr. Light. Rock was lucky. Dr. Light probably told him kind things every day. They got to work together on science projects, and Bass was sure that Dr. Light and Rock even went out into the yard and played catch. Rock was always Dr. Light's son, so of course they would do something so stereotypical.

Bass thought of his own "childhood" and cringed. There were very few times when simply speaking to Dr. Wily didn't illicit a sharp remark. Thinking very hard, Bass tried to think if he and Dr. Wily had ever had a nice moment together. One where there was no fighting, and maybe Wily even said something nice. Bass could only think of once. It was just a small moment, a very long time ago.

**The robot activated. Forte/Bass, Special Wily Number 001, blinked his eyes. He became immediately aware of his surroundings: he was sitting on a little stool, within some sort of small, enclosed space. This got no reaction out of the robot. His mind informed him that this was an enclosed automated machine. Bass stood to his feet, and the wall before him - which wasn't a wall at all - lifted up to allow him access to the outside. **

**The outside was unremarkable. From the way his footsteps echoed on the tile floor, Bass knew that the place must have been a large and relatively empty room, perhaps a warehouse. Simply looking around didn't do much good. The lights, what little of them there were, were all very dim and allowed only the slightest of shadows be visible.**

**Bass looked down. The automated machine gave a little light, and he could see his immediate surroundings. There at his feet lay a large, purple wolf, which immediately got up and wagged its tail. Bass accessed his mental database, then smiled as the correct file was found. This was SWN-002, Treble the wolf. His doggy assistant. A new experience activated in Bass' head. It was his emotions programming, and this emotion was happiness.**

**Bass snapped around, the first of the other robot gripped tightly in his own. Oh yes, Bass knew he'd been there all along, silently waiting for Bass to be distracted. Forte's computer mind recalled that this thing was called a Sniper Joe, though this particular model seemed to be without his traditional gun and shield. A reprogrammed martial arts combatant, perhaps.**

**The dark robot gave no more thought to the thing. His hand crushed the Joe's. Though it might be said that the Joe gave a good fight, one questions how good that fight is when he ended up as nothing more than a robotic carcass against the floor. This one was replaced by three more, likewise unarmed but not harmless. Bass defeated them all. One took a roundhouse kick to the face, severing his neck from this shoulders. The second fell by a firm punch into the power core, and the third, while trying to save the second, fell prey to the purple wolf. **

**After that, the room lit up, but not with lights. It was with the massive flooding of plasma bullet after plasma bullet. Bass jumped into the air and jumped once more, converting his hands into mighty plasma busters that returned fire with a vengeance. The purple rain falling from his powerful weapon began the process of eliminating the source of the enemy bullets: more Sniper Joes, this time properly armed and shielded. One by one each stream of weapons fire was silenced - not counting the assistance of the wolf, who seemed every bit as interested as his master in destroying the mechaniloids. Soon enough, it was only the two of them and a lot of green rubble.**

**For more Joes jumped out of the shadows, this time armed with swords instead. Bass displayed his fangs in a merry, dastardly grin and pulled his busters back into hands. Shooting them would just be too easy. This "mercy" allowed each of the Sniper Joes perhaps another twenty seconds of life. Soon enough, however, each of the four lay at Bass' feet, their own swords through them.**

**A light switched on. Bass looked up at the wall, now realizing exactly how high the ceiling was: at least two stories. And there light streamed down, from the second story. An upper room was in the wall, partitioned away from the fighting compound by a protective layer of glass. Behind that glass was an aged man with amazingly wild hair sticking out in opposite directions. The wrinkled creature gazed down at Bass with a wicked smile, stroking his chin with delight. And as he stared, the human began to laugh. This was by no means an ordinary laugh. This powerful, booming sound filled the air, growing louder with each passing second.**

**The dark robot looked up at the human, and a smile grew on his face as well. He let the wicked laughter of his creator wash over him and give him power. In that moment, without anything being said, Bass knew it that he was destined for great and mighty things.**

**Eventually though, the laugher did fade out, but not the old man's smile. He pushed a button on a console that Bass couldn't see. With a short whine, the intercom system activated. **

**"Welcome to life, Bass." said Dr. Albert Wily. "Make me proud."**

And that was it. That was the only good moment the two had ever had together. Oh sure, Wily had a couple of encouraging words for him before sending him out the door to go trick Mega Man, but not too much. The mission at hand had already been programmed into Bass' mind, so there wasn't the need for explanation. That, and Wily was in a hurry to punish Mega Man for arresting him. Then it was nothing but disappointments and fights ever since. Wily was disappointed in Bass' lack of victories, and Bass was just plain disappointed in Wily. He didn't know then what a good creator was like, but he knew it couldn't be like Wily.

Bass smiled a little to himself, and his left hand wandered back to Treble's ears. The dark robot's thoughts went to Dr. Light. Now he was a good master, even if he was a little strange and treated robots like real human children.

_Maybe that's what made him so cool. _Bass thought. _Because he treats robots like real people. Huh. _

Then, strangely enough, Bass understood. He felt sad because he knew that was the way Dr. Light would want him to feel. He was a good guy now, and even though he only had a short time to be discipled by the good scientist, Bass did know that it was wrong to celebrate death. Forte could almost hear Light's voice in his head, telling him that Wily could have been very great and very beneficial to the world, only Wily's selfishness outwitted his sensibilities and reduced him to a petty villain.

"That's right." Bass told Treble. "I feel sorry for him. I mean, he's so darn pathetic. He was supposed to be a great genius, but everyone hates him now. Yeah. Why not feel sorry for a loser like him?" Bass paused a moment, getting lost in his thoughts. Only for a moment, though. "Y'know Treb, there's no way in hell that Wily is my dad. He may have created me, but he's not my father. He's just some bastard that put me together. If I'm anything today, it's because of Dr. Light. _He's _my real father."

If anyone else beside Treble had been in the room, Bass would feel unbelievably awkward. As it was, only the kind eyes of his wolf looked back at him. The dog nuzzled him, happily pawing at his master. Bass gave Treble a good rub.

"Heh, you're right, Treb. I'm too dang mopey. I don't need to be. He's not worth it. Good boy."

Bass pulled his arms around his dog, giving him a firm hug before getting up. He stretched out, determined to be happy. Who cared if Wily was dead? Not Bass! Or so the robot assured himself. He was going to get up, have a good day and...

He paused. What exactly was he going to do? He didn't have a job anymore, now that Zero was defeated. Forte groaned to think of Russia; he still legally belonged to the Cossacks. With any luck, the Russian government would decide that since Zero was gone they didn't want Bass back in their country. He was fine with that, but of course he was still restricted from plenty of other countries. Russia's size provided Bass lots of places to explore with only one country's approval to worry about. As much as he wanted to go to Japan, their landmass was considerably smaller.

Thoughts like these distracted Bass from noticing his walk back to the laboratory. He arrived there to find Auto still running around like a maniac trying to get the robots that volunteered to fight Zero back into good condition. Dub helped also, mainly by stacking all the replacement armors and circuitry in little piles by each robot master. Bass sneered at the fallen forms of Quick Man and Top Man as he passed by their repair tables, but otherwise gave them no mind. Of course Mega Man would keep his promise to let them go free. It surprised Bass that the REA didn't veto this.

In any case, he headed back to the A.I. lab where Crystal Bot had repaired him. His technician was still there, but otherwise the scene was entirely shocking. Crystal Bot's work was scattered all over the repair table, mainly consisting of sketches and blueprints for a new Crystal Man, and also plans to add battle A.I to Frantic Man. Bruce saw fit to collect her multifarious papers to keep them organized, having to flit about very quickly to keep up with it all. None of this was the cause of the shock. That was the sheer volume of the work, and also the way Crystal Bot merrily sang along (not very well) to some chirpy Korean pop as she took notes and sketched.

Bass pulled up an extra chair beside her and glanced at some of the Frantic Man work as if he understood it. Treble found himself a spot under the repair table and lay down. Crystal Bot smiled warmly at the dog, but was more hesistant as she addressed Bass.

"Oh, hey Forte-kun. How are you feeling?"

Bass was tempted to roll his eyes. Crystal Bot was doing it again - waiting to see what he thought and then trying to figure out the best way to react. He hated it when she did that. She was much less annoying when she just had opinions of her own. He didn't want her to be "sensitive" about his creator dying, despite the fact his disappearance gave her a pretty logical reason to do so.

_There's nothing for her to be 'sensitive' about._ he muttered inwardly before speaking aloud. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, good." Crystal Bot, happy as ever, went back to her work.

"Hey Sonata," Bass lifted an eyebrow. "What's with you?"

She didn't lift her eyes from her work. "What do you mean?"

"Wily's dead and you're not freaking out about it. I figured you'd be huddling under the table glitching yourself to death or something."

"No, not at all." Crystal Bot put down her papers and turned to him. "Hey, I really owe you an apology, Forte-kun. Back when Dr. Light was all...old and stuff, I was being really rude and silly. I should have been there more for Dr. Light. I was so scared about it, but really, it's not so bad. I was there for Wily's death, and it was really kinda boring. One minute he was breathing, and the next he wasn't. That's not scary at all!"

"Wait, what? You were there?" Bass was incredulous. "How did that happen?"

"Well...I just felt so bad for him." Crystal got a little nervous. "And I had nothing to do because I had to wait for the REA to approve me to recieve Zero's parts to fix you. I felt like I might as well go. It wasn't technically worth it. Dr. Wily was mostly asleep, and when he was awake he wasn't really there. Just sort of daydreaming or something. He would talk and talk, but all jumbly. I couldn't understand it. A couple of weeks later he just died. He lasted pretty long for someone in his state, though. The nurses were expecting him to die the first night I went over there."

Bass didn't know about medical science, but somehow all those symptoms didn't really seem to fit a mere heart problem. Of course, with someone like Wily there was no telling what was wrong with him. "So, um, any last words?"

"Not really..." Crystal grunted a moment, searching through her memory database to check. She shook her head. "Mostly it was a bunch of gibberish. He was only sort of conscious those last two days. He was awake the day before that. We talked a little bit about Team 5, and then he asked me if Zero was defeated. I told him yes, and he got all quiet. The last thing he ever really said was, 'Of course he is. Bass always finds a way to ruin my plans. Figures.' After that, he fell asleep. He never said anything that made sense after that, so I guess those have to count _technically_ as his last words."

Crystal Bot sniffed, staring a bit at the work before her. "Um...Forte? Can we not talk about this anymore? I know you don't like Dr. Wily, but it still makes me a little sad to think about him being gone. Some parts are coming today in the mail for me to fix Crystal Man, and I don't want to be sad when I'm working on my daddy."

"Um. Okay."

Crystal smiled at him shyly before turning back to her computer. "Thanks for understanding, Forte-kun."

The girl-bot didn't notice (or acted like she didn't notice) the weird look on Bass' face. It was a little inscrutable. The dark robot was stunned, and as much as he didn't want to show it, he still wasn't any good at containing his emotions. His muscles tightened as he tried to force away the look, but soon enough Crystal Bot was focused on her own things.

**"Of course he is. Bass always finds a way to ruin my plans. Figures."**

Bass fought hard not to glitch. He didn't realize how emotional these few words would make him. Wily, in his own demented way, believed in Bass. His words were proof: he didn't say anthing about Mega Man killing Zero, laying the credit to that soley at his own creation's feet. Wily himself genuinely thought that his wayward robot, that the "biggest mistake I ever made", was the one who would destroy his masterpiece Zero in the end.

For once, Bass thought he might actually glitch. His creator believed in him, and that thought alone erased more hate from Bass' heart than he ever suspected. Now the haunting, evil figure in his mind really could shrink, and shrink he did. Wily went from horrible monster all the way down to an annoying idiot, laughable in his goofy selfishness. Bass grinned wide. He wanted to laugh. It was the last laugh, after all, and he had it.

_Hell, I just might miss the old man._ Bass grinned wide._ After all, who's as hilarious as Wily? He built Spring Man, an idiot built entirely out of slinkies! Who knows what other crap he'll think of next? Something stupid, probably._

Treble rubbed against Bass' leg, barking up at him with a wagging tail. Bass smiled. He wasn't going to get tired of petting Treble any time soon. He hadn't spent any time in the past four weeks with his dog, and he had to make up lost time. After a minute though, he did stop.

"Hey Sonata," Bass turned back to his technician. "What did they do with Wily's body?"

"Oh, that." Crystal Bot looked up from her papers and shivered. As much as she claimed she wasn't afraid of death anymore, Bass swore she went pale as she thought of a dead body. "He's in the morgue right now. They figure since I've been the one taking care of Wily that I get to decide what happens to it. I'm not really sure."

The girl-bot looked up with hopeful eyes at her boss. Normally this might have annoyed Bass, but today he couldn't blame her.

"I'll think of somewhere to put him." Bass said. "It has to really fit, though."

"Roll said I should put him in the robot museum so that people would come to Monstropolis to see it." Crystal Bot added. "Sort of like Che Guevara's grave. There's a whole little town that's main economy is tourists coming to see Guevara's grave. It makes sense to do something like that, because that way Wily can sort of pay back the damage he did to Monstropolis."

"Eh..." Bass tapped his chin. "No, I don't like it. That would be too weird. Besides, he's in real Hell, so why does he need to be in robot Hell too?"

"You know, Forte, I don't think the robot museum is half as bad as you say it is."

"Whatever. I'm still not sticking Wily in there. Give me some time to think about it, and we'll bury him there."

"Are we gonna have a funeral?"

Bass leaned back in his chair with disgust. "Crap, I have to organize that too? Ugh...how do you have a funeral for somebody everyone hates?"

"_Kulsseyo_." Crystal Bot fidgeted in her chair. "Y'know, Forte, I did say I was busy..."

"You're being a complete wimp, you mean." Bass snorted. "Fine, leave me to figure this out by myself. You're still selling your crystals to pay for whatever I decide."

"Okay, okay. Now shoo!" Crystal Bot waved him off. "Go take Treble for a walk! I gave you a new power core, so you have to be nice to me!"

"Yes, _ma'am_."

Bass rolled his eyes as he got up from his chair. He glanced down at Treble, and it really did look like the wolf wanted to go out on a walk. Bass shrugged. Why not take the dog out? He had a lot to figure out.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I seriously hope you guy enjoy this chapter. I worked really hard to make it something nice. I had a rough draft of it written up, but ended up rewriting most of that. I feel so inspired now! This story is going to have a really good ending.

- In case you're wondering, Proto Man's memory up there is what Spark Man offered to the REA as testimony in the previous chapter, though naturally from Spark Man's perspective instead.

- _Kulsseyo_ means "I dunno" in korean.

Character profile!

=====Dr. Albert Alexander Wily

**"Of course I'm going to take over the world!"**

Good point: A genius

Bad point: Selfish

Likes: Old timey radio

Dislikes: Normal people

Now, if ever at the end of one of my stories you actually suspected that that was going to be the last story in the series, then I'm ashamed of you. I'm really going to do this series and not do a character profile on Dr. Wily? That should have been your first hint that things were going to continue. But, as the series is drawing to a close and Wily is now officially dead, why not get to his backstory?

Albert Wily is an immigrant from Austria and thus has maintained his foreign accent despite being in California since he was ten. Now, a lot of biographers about Wily maintained that it was his mother's death when he was two that damaged Albert somehow and made him evil. This always angered him over the years, because he insists that his childhood was always happy. He doesn't like the "grew up depressed" stereotype. Claudia Wily was a good woman, however, and it can only be guessed what would have happened to Albert had she lived.

Meanwhile it was up to the widower father, Francis Wily, to raise the boy, his only child. Now, Francis knew even when Albert was very young that he was just too smart. Albert could read at age three, spell complex words at four, and was always pulling apart his toys to see how they worked. Francis was always impressed that his son got out of that todder "put everything in your mouth" stage very quickly. He was able to buy complex robot toys for his son without worrying about the boy hurting himself.

Francis saved up enough money to go to America, and found a job in Monstropolis as a repairman. Albert, who was ten at this point, loved this. He was frequently allowed to be in the shop, and due to his inventive nature, was able to impress the boss and earn some odd jobs. Now, Francis had always known that his son was far smarter than him, and he encouraged this as much as possible. He told his son to save his money, because there was no way Francis could pay his way through college. Albert always appreciated his father's advice, and frequently in life he made much of his father.

And so the teen years passed. Like Dr. Light, Wily was the sort of person that didn't really feel the need for romantic companionship. Besides his father constantly telling him "we don't need any women to watch out for us", he felt his life's work was too important. He spent those years earning money to go to Monstropolis University. He even faked an ID so that he could get a job at fourteen instead of sixteen, an error which caused biographers to often cite him as two years older than his real age. Many are still confused about it.

Albert was always careful with his money, and generally only spent some when he needed new shoes or wanted to build something to impress his intended college. However, right as Wily graduated from high school, his father had a sudden stroke and simply dropped dead one day without any warning. After sorting through his father's paperwork, Albert discovered that his father was ridiculously in debt. It was so bad that not only were all of Albert's substantial college savings drained away, but caused him to have to work a full year of two jobs just to pay it all back.

Wily never fully forgave his father, and during that year developed his first real bitterness. His father preached to him so much about being responsible, and yet left a legacy of trouble. Wily even got angry at his mother for being dead, believing that had she lived that none of this would have happened. His dreams were dashed, and he found himself wondering what life would hand him.

However, one night he was stocking shelves at the grocery store, only to run into one of his high school science teachers. This teacher was so upset at what happened to Albert that he began writing letters to some people he knew at Monstropolis University. Thus Wily ended up getting the scholarship that Dr. Light had refused. It was a full scholarship, including boarding, food, books, and classes for all four years, as well as an option for a further scholarship if he desired a higher degree. Wily couldn't have been happier, and felt for once that someone was treating him the way that he deserved.

He met Thomas Light very soon during his freshman year. The friendship was at once a big relief to Albert, as not even his father understood him like Thomas. With most people Wily felt he had to overexplain himself. But with Light, he found himself able to have a real conversation about complex things and Light would pick it right up. Needless to say, the both of them were hell on the teachers, and they soon found themselves teaching advanced mechanics. Of course, over time Wily began to feel weird about the relationship. He found that he sort of liked having to explain things to others; it made him feel smart. He liked being the only genius in a room full of normal people. Now that Thomas was around, he had to share the spotlight.

At the time it wasn't such a big deal to him. Dr. Light had to work his way through college at a car parts factory, and when his boss heard that Wily was as smart as Light, he told Thomas to offer Albert a job. Albert took it, figuring he might as well have some pocket money. It turned out that his boss hired the both of them to try and steal the ideas they naturally came up with. Light at that stage in his life was a little shy about pushing for his rights, but Wily wasn't, and he caught Mr. Henderson right in the act of trying to copy one of Dr. Light's sketches made during a break concerning automobile efficiency. Wily pitched a fit about suing him, and Henderson backed off. Dr. Light found out about this ten years later.

Wily's jealously slowly grew as time went on. It never got to a particularly sharp level at that point (until graduation), but even still he was grateful that Azuma Ayumu, a recent temporary immigrant from Japan, showed up. He knew that Thomas was every bit as work focused as he was, but all the same he hoped something could work out to distract Thomas so that he could surpass his rival. It wasn't with kind motives that he joined mutual friends in tricking the two into their first "date". This effort appeared worthless for a time, and Wily gradutated Salutitarian to Light's Valedictorian.

While they were both offered the job of being the permanent Advanced Mechanics teachers, Wily let Light take this and began pursuing his own line of technology. He struggled some at first, but was able to earn enough money to become comfortable about two years after graduation. He attended Dr. Light's wedding as the best man, praising in secret his luck that Ayumu would prove to be a distraction after all, even if for a short time. He mourned when she died, though for the wrong reasons.

I say all that, but Wily wasn't a complete jerk during his young to middle aged years. The things he built then he honestly wanted to use to help society. He managed to make some money, but always felt like his bosses were cheating him and preventing him from becoming famous. He did manage to get a contract for a column in three science magazines, which he wrote for many years. He also wrote some technical books, but these were generally only read by fellow scientists. Wily didn't care too much for "writing for the uneducated".

During this time Wily did marry. As much as he felt like he didn't need a companion, he started getting curious. And he wanted someone to keep his house straight. A woman named Hanna Fitzgerald seemed to fit the bill, and she was the closest anyone he knew ever came to being as smart as he or Dr. Light. Hanna married him because she figured they would have smart children. That hope, however, was dashed by a medical problem, and she couldn't have them. Albert was fine with this, mainly because he wasn't sure if he wanted kids anyway. Hanna, however, wasn't. She didn't like having Albert gone all the time at work, leaving her to do whatever. She either wanted to be involved in his life, or gone. After several bitter arguments and one last year of marriage, she settled for the latter. They divorced, leaving Wily to lament that his father was correct in his opinions about women.

In case you're wondering, Hanna went on to remarry and have children by in-vitro. She basically lived happily ever after, but never liked talking about her marriage to Wily. She often denied the marriage when her friends asked about it - "No, no, his name was _Alvin_ Wily, and of course he's no relation to Albert even though they have the same last name. You see, my husband's family changed their name three generations ago..."

As Wily turned fifty, he found himself annoyed. He was doing well enough, but he didn't have a "career" in scientific mechanics. He just had a series of jobs with a few inventions in between. Dr. Light, on the other hand, was renown for his work in robotics. Though at that point Dr. Light didn't have much to show for it yet, Light at least knew what his life's work was. Wily, pressuring himself to do the same, screwed up his finances. He didn't have that imaginative spark to narrow his mechanical field into something he really felt passionate about. As he often put it himself, "I am so talented I can do anything, and there's too much to choose from". Wily's best efforts went into deep sea exploring, but he often rushed this work, and it showed. Ironically, he was more successful at this when he was an evil villain, in the forms of Bubble Man, Wave Man, and all the other water robots he built.

And so when he, in a rare streak of humility, called Dr. Light with the intention of borrowing money. he found himself offered a job before he could even ask. While he didn't want to work under Dr. Light, Wily figured it was a good way to keep his eye on his old friend. However, as he one night was taking a walk in Monstropolis, he came across Proto Man, who suffered from his power core trouble. Wily brought him to his makeshift lab and more or less set him straight, getting the chance to study Light's work in depth. Wily wasn't antagonistic to Dr. Light at this point, but he ended up just letting Proto Man go because he wanted to see what would happen if one of Light's robots were set loose on humanity. He figured something embarrassing would happen and then Proto Man would be sent back to the lab or just destroyed.

After this never happened and Proto Man remained on the loose, Wily did feel a little guilty. He didn't think it was worth it to say anything, though, and Dr. Light never found out. This guilt began a real rift between the two scientists, even though Dr. Light didn't know the full reasoning behind it. Thomas did have a clue at that point about Wily's true feelings, but he always tried to be accomodating to Dr. Wily. Needless to say, this didn't work. Wily grew increasingly jealous of Thomas. This came to a head when Light won the Nobel Peace Prize. Finally Wily's attitudes grew intolerable, and Light attempted to come up with some way of seperating Wily from Light Laboratories in a way that would at least salve the egotistical man. Wily found out about these plans, stole the six robot masters, and thus was it all begun.

Wily stayed relatively sane at the beginning, and some of his earliest robots, such as Metal Man, Crystal Man, and Star Man's first draft, were meant to push the boundaries of what a robot can do and thus outdo Dr. Light "legitimately". As time progressed, and especially after his arrest at the end of MM6, the quality went down. Even Wily began to notice when the evil energy didn't do much for Team 8. Wily began a series of robots that would kick butt, but these, along with two Team 8 robots and Cold Man (not Wily's creation) rebelled with King. For years there was a pause as Wily began to calm down and reassess. He made a couple attempts at restoring his robot masters (Mega Man: the Power Fighters) but not too much came of this. All along Wily began building Zero and changing his scheme. No longer would he force the world to obey him or acknowledge his genius: he was going to devastate it.

In the original timeline, this worked, particularly because nobody believed Wily was capable of taking even his aims seriously. Wily's scheme to make money (MM9) didn't seem to be much besides a goof, though even Mega Man pricked up his ears when roboenza showed up on the scheme. A new smattering of anti-virus programs showed up on the scene, seemingly ended the ability of Wily to spread his computer viruses. Wily caused some mild trouble until he was ready to hatch his worst plan yet, and took every precaution to ensure that he would be remembered as the father of the robots rather than Dr. Light.

In this timeline, his plans of course did not work. Wily has no descendants, and any family has is distant, in Europe, and generally in denial about his relation. One of his cousins did write a book about Wily, whom he had met as a child. This biography was generally sensationalist and not particularly acurate. It was written for the cousin to gain money and to distance Wily from his family - it wasn't their fault he was a madman. Wily himself read it, and he thought it was funny.

Crystal Bot is the only person who isn't afraid to call Wily a relative. She genuinely considers herself Wily's granddaughter, though Crystal Man is not likely to feel the same way.

So yeah, now Wily's dead. D-E-D redneck dead. Care to say a few words on his behalf?


	28. Proto Man's Ending

It was weeks after the fight with Zero, but since Monstropolis' shipping only began to resemble to normalcy in the past week, perhaps Auto could be forgiven for being so behind in repairing the probots that had so bravely, and so stupidly, volunteered to fight the blond monstrocity. Yes, and most of the supplies that were shipped into Monstropolis went into repairing the city itself, rather than the roots that most people were only grudingly grateful to. The mood in the city, however, was one of joy and peace. Business workers joining construction not only in celebrating the knowledge that Wily was gone, but in rebuilding their beloved city. They did this joyfully, thinking perhaps the city of Monstropolis could be peaceful for once, and not suffer fhe consequences of continual war.

Auto's mood was by no means similar. Sure, he was plenty grateful that the Wily Wars were over, but here he was, stuck in the lab and trying to repair almost fifty robots all over again. Auto _hmphed_ as his impatient eyes looked up from the remains of Yamato Man and glared at the other side of the lab. His side was full of the defeated Wily-bots, but the other was full of activated ones - Team 5 - all huddled around the beginnings of Crystal Man's new body. The part that they had been waiting for was now finally there, and they had to be at the lab to get the delivery. It wasn't as if UPS could deliver packages to space. It was bad enough that Crystal Bot and Gravity Man, the two robots most qualified to help Auto, each bent over the incomplete Crystal Man to attach the joint clamps. The other six Team 5 members, however, also felt some strange urge to be there as well, getting in Auto's way and not even bothering to offer to help.

Auto _hmphed _again. It should have been good news that just this morning Dr. Kenneth Imahara had arrived in Monstropolis. Auto had to dodge the mass of construction workers, large CAT machines, and roadblocks just to get to the airport (thankfully itself untouched) and bring Imahara to the lab. Now the Japanese scientist, finally at the lab, was huddled over there with the Team 5 people. Auto made sure not to glare if Imahara looked up - which meant Auto could glare as much as he wanted. Imahara was as focused on the crystal-generating robot as Gravity Man and Crystal Bot. The three surrounded the body like mystical dancers around a fire, the only ones who knew the magic, while the unmagical audience could only watch in awe.

"Hmph!"

Mega Man tried not to laugh, and hoped Auto didn't see his grin. Rock had at least managed to volunteer his and Roll's serviced in Operation Reduce Auto's Workload, but his knowledge was out of date, and Roll wasn't exactly a tech-bot. Still, they obediently did as Auto told them, running around and trying not to get in his way. Roll went off to get Yamato Man from storage as Mega Man went over to Cut Man's repair table. Rock thought that he could at least figure out how to put a Team 1 robot back together. They weren't that advanced since his scientific days. Just in case, though, Mega Man did keep a nice big technical manual open on the foot of the table.

"Ooh, poor Cut Man." Mega Man winced over the remains, gently patting what he thought could be Cut Man's shoulder. It was sort of hard to tell, as it wasn't attached to the rest of him. "Don't worry, I'll try to get you back in working order...I hope."

Mega Man had plenty of reason to doubt. While Cut Man's cutters had been relatively simple to find, it had taken a full week to find most of him, and nobody was sure they had all the parts. The poor robot was a scattered mess. The left foot and the whole right leg were each a separate piece. The rest of the left leg and most of the thighs were another chunk. The chest was in two different pieces, and the head and shoulders in three. That didn't count all of Cut Man's multifarious innards that had fallen out of him at one point or another. Rock's job was to inventory what was missing, what parts could be salvaged, and what parts would be too damaged to do anything but be recycled.

As Mega Man got to work, he couldn't help his attention wandering to the other end of the lab. The excitement of Team 5 was catching, and Rock very much wanted to know that Crystal Man was going to be up and about soon. It distracted his thoughts from his own missing family member.

"So what exactly is this?" Dr. Imahara asked, pointing to Crystal Man's unarmored chest. "I didn't see this in the schematics you showed me."

"That's because it's an upgrade, and you saw Crystal Man's original schematics." Crystal Bot squealed, happily clapping her hands even with a screwdriver in the way. "I'm a more advanced model for crystal generation, so he needs to be more powerful too. Man, that new shipment of transmodifiers took forever to get here, but we'll need all ten of them to make my dad operate at an efficient capacity."

"I can't wait to tell him all the things we've done since his day!" Star Man said. "He's going to want to know everything about my space station - he'll be so proud of what I've done to it!"

"I hope he still likes movies." Stone Man pondered. "He always used to like Bollywood. I got a whole bunch of them for him to see! I hope we're done with him soon, because I got one where an alien crashes into earth, and that one looks really good!"

"You're going to show me how to compress the transmodifier technology, Sona." Gravity Man frowned into Crystal Man's power core, poking at it with his wrench. "I don't see how we're going to fit all of them in here."

"Come on, Gravity-kun." Crystal Bot teased. "How many times have you worked on me and you still don't get it? It's not that hard."

"Actually, that's the part I'm the least worried about." Imahara bent down to examine the ten rectangular metal boxes below Crystal Man's repair table. "I think I know what Crystal Bot is going for. We're really going to have to cannibalize the transmodifiers, but if you tell me how the wiring is hooked into his power core, I'll be able to program the automated machinery to set them up."

"Okay, let's do that now." Crystal Bot gestured her team closer. "Everyone, please put the transmodifiers on the next repair table."

"I'll keep working on his power core while you guys do that." Gravity Man agreed. "Oh, hey Gyro Man, why don't you stick with me and keep a look out on the monitor to make sure his power level doesn't fluctuate."

"Okay..." A doubtful Gyro Man stepped out of Charge Man's path (nobody liked being in Charge Man's path) and went over to the little computer pillar next to Crystal Man's repair table. He tried not to trip over the long, orange wire that connected the beginning of the shiny-bot's neck to the pillar. "Um...how do I do this? I'm not exactly a tech."

"It's alright." Gravity Man pointed to the monitor embedded in the computer. "See that red line? Just make sure it stays in the green field and doesn't go too high or too low. Tell me if it does, and I'll handle it. You don't have to do anything hard."

Auto looked up from Centaur Man's remains and glared at the other robots. Now they weren't just being unhelpful, they were taking up more of his space. At that point Roll re-entered the room, merrily carrying Yamato Man over her shoulder. But of course she came in from the far door, so that she would have to pass by Crystal Man to get back to her side of the lab. And, since she was over there, she might as well have a look and see how Crystal Man was coming. Auto hmphed.

"Hey, Sona-chan!" Roll said, coming alongside her friend at the repair table with the transmodifiers. "I came up with a human name for Crystal Man. What do you think of 'Chris Tillman'?"

"Chris Tillman?" Crystal placed her transmodifier down to give the name a think. "Well, it's kind of simple, don't you...wait, I get it! It's 'Crystal Man' said differently! Oh, that's so creative!"

"Isn't it though? You should use it!"

"I like it." Charge Man placed his transmodifier next to Crystal Bot's. "It's better than what Crystal Bot came up with for me. I'm not sure I like Ishihara McKnight. It seems like a name for Knight Man rather than me."

"Well it's not like 'charge' is in any human last names. And knights charge." The girl-bot stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to the Light-bot. "Anyway, Roll-chan, I don't think I can come up with a better name than that. Aw, I guess my last name will have to be Tillman too. Sonata Tillman...that doesn't sound as cute as Sonata Costa!"

"Chris Costa..." Roll thought. "No, I like Tillman better."

Another _hmph! _from the other side of the room reminded Roll what she was doing. Roll quickly ushered poor Yamato Man to Auto's side, placing him in the repair table meant for him. Roll stretched her shoulder, making sure that the weight of Yamato Man hadn't dented the metal any.

"Alright, Roll." Auto came over to her, still rapidly waving his fan at his head. "Go ahead and bring Wind Man in. He'll fit on the last repair table over here. If we're lucky we'll get Team 6 done today. Oh, and try to be quicker about it this time, okay?"

Roll nervously chuckled. "Um, sorry, Auto! I'll be-"

_Ding-Dong!_

"Oh! That's the doorbell!" Roll said as she dashed off through the lab, again through the far door. "I'll be right back, Auto!"

The green repair-bot glowered, shooting a poof of steam out through his head. "Geez, how am I supposed to get any work done around here? I have the most unreliable help ever!"

Mega Man couldn't help but laugh. "Everyone's too excited today, Auto. They have a reason to be. Don't worry, by tomorrow we should be able to get back into the swing of things."

"You mean kick Team 5 back to their space station." Auto muttered, low enough for only Mega Man to hear. "Hmph!"

"I wonder who's at the door." Rock checked his chronometer as a hopeless Auto went back to Centaur Man. "Dr. Cossack isn't supposed to be back for another half hour. The meeting he was supposed to go to ends about now, but it's going to take a while for him to get back. Hmm...what meeting was that, anyway?"

"Oh, something about destruction recovery procedures." Auto lifted a piece of Centaur Man's head, examining it with one eye shut. "I think Dr. Cossack invented some sort of building support technology that will help in case of earthquakes."

"That makes sense. With so many of Monstropolis' buildings destroyed, now is a very good time to get that technology." Rock laid his notepad computer next to Cut Man. "Alright, I think he's all catalogued. Do you want to go through the broken parts? I think they're destroyed, but I'm not really...sure..."

Mega Man stopped. All the words dropped out of his head, and all his problems along with. He forgot all else that existed. There at the door was the red and grey robot who always appeared at the times he was least expected. This time was no different. Only moments ago he feared his brother was gone for good. Only now, there he was, standing in the doorway! Roll called out "look who's here!" but before she even finished, Mega Man (who heard nothing) was already there.

"Blues!" Rock threw his arms around his brother.

"Oof. Hey Rock. I'm back."

The room exploded with applause. As soon as Rock let go of his brother (and that took a while), Proto Man found himself surrounded. Numerous hands stuck out at him from every direction, all at once so that Proto Man had to use both his hands just to appease all of the hands. And even Auto, his projects forgotten, bounded over from the other side like an impatient rhinocerous. He scooped up Proto Man right off the floor, smothering poor Proto Man in Auto's biggest bear hug.

"BLUES! I missed you so much!"

"Erk! I missed you too, big guy. I'm not so sure I missed your hugs, though."

Auto did finally put Proto Man down, and as thankful as he was, Proto Man was still nervous. He surveyed the crowd around him timidly, and much to his annoyance they were all full of questions. So many, in fact, that it was hard to hear over all of them.

"I was hoping you'd get out!" Charge Man exclaimed. "I crossed all my fingers and made a wish on Star Man!"

"Um, thanks..." Proto Man rubbed the back of his neck uncertainly. "Huh, I wasn't expecting so many of you to be here..."

"Hey, we're your friends too." Gyro Man gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. "We wanted you to make it out of the REA's hands."

"Congrats, Proto Man!" Napalm Man slapped him on the back. "Oh hey, let me shake your hand! I can do that now because I have hands now! You never saw my new hands!"

"I always knew they would release you." Wave Man said, gurgling with laughter as Napalm's huge hand dwarfed Proto Man's arm. "There's absolutely no way in the world a robot like you would be deleted!"

"It's great to finally meet you, Proto Man." the human greeted, managing to get a hand past the metal people. "I'm Dr. Kenneth Imahara-"

"Second cousin in-law of Dr. Light." Proto Man politely shook his hand. "I know. I did a background check on you when I found out that you were going to be inheriting a lot of Dr. Light's property."

"Oh, wow. I guess I should have expected that." Imahara chuckled. "So do I pass inspection?"

Proto Man let some playful doubt cross his face before letting it relax into a smile. "Yes. I've seen your records. You really need to get out of the house more."

"Hey, I like my work." Imahara shrugged. "You can't fault a guy for that."

"Aw, I got my daddy and Rock-kun got his brother back!" Crystal Bot clapped her hands together. "So wonderful!"

"Alright, alright everyone." Mega Man spoke up, making himself sure to be heard. "I'm sure we're all very curious, but let's give Proto Man some breathing room here. Come on in, Blues. Don't stand in the door."

Proto Man allowed his brother to lead him by the elbow to one of the center repair tables - the one meant for Wind Man, apparently. Proto Man still felt a bit awkward; he wasn't sure what Rock was trying to accomplish. He was now in the middle of the lab, but the crowd still followed him. He'd been hoping that only his family would be home. All he could do was shrug and pull himself onto the table so that he could sit down. The others packed around him like children at storytime.

"Well..." Proto Man managed. "I guess I might as well tell all of you all about it while you're here. I'm sure you have lots of questions."

"We have a ton!" Stone Man exclaimed. "Tell us everything! How did they let you off? When? You don't have to do any community service, do you?"

"What the hell is all this noise out here? Some of us are trying to read!"

Team 5 parted to reveal the speaker: Bass. The dark robot emerged from the A.I. lab and still holding _War As I Knew It_ in his dangling left hand. The parting of 5 also revealed the source of the commotion without any explanation. It wasn't as if Bass needed any. His volume spoke enough for him. He spotted Proto Man and immediately frowned.

"Well, crap." a snarky Bass approached Proto Man. "I thought finally wasn't going to have to look at your ugly mug anymore."

Mega Man would've glared at Bass, only he was so flabbergasted he almost forgot how. How could someone, even someone like Bass, say something like that to someone who's been through as much as Proto Man?

"That's the one thing that sucks about being alive." Proto Man smirked. "I still have to put up with Bass' pathetic attempts at wit."

Forte laughed. "Screw you, Blues. Eh, good to see the REA actually made a smart decision for once." Bass glanced over at Rock. "See there? I said something nice about your brother. Don't have a heart attack, alright?"

Rock shook his head to hide his embarrasment. He'd forgotten how abrupt Bass' sense of humor was. At the same time, the doorbell rang again. As much as she didn't want to leave her brothers, Roll reluctantly went through the crowd to head out and answer it. She made sure Rock saw her annoyed glare before she left, though.

"Gee, a compliment from Bass." Proto Man rolled his eyes. "I'll treasure it _forever_."

"Of course you will." Bass let his smile drop, and at once his arms folded up in a sudden rise of contempt. "But in all seriousness, if you get off all those crimes you committed with less probation than I got stuck with, I'm going to punch you in the face."

"Relax. I've got probation for ten years." Proto Man admitted with a sigh. "I wasn't pardoned for everything. It was epionage and avoiding arrest that got me. The REA doesn't trust me completely, and..they're justified in feeling that way. I haven't given them too much reason to trust me. I'll just have to live with it. Technically I'll still be owned by Dr. Light's primary heir-"

Rock suddenly brightened. "You mean to say I'm going to be my brother's keeper?"

"Ha, I wish. Primary _human_ heir. It'll be a long time before they ever let robots own robots." Proto Man glanced up at Dr. Imahara. "I hope _I_ pass inspection. I'm your robot now."

At once the light in Imahara's eyes glowed and danced like a five year old after a Mountain Dew. He began to laugh, mostly inward laughs as he delightedly rubbed his hands together and disappeared into his thoughts. Star Man, a bit creeped out, edged away a couple of steps.

"All scientists are the same!" Mega Man couldn't help his amusement. "I've never met a scientist that didn't get that way when they got a piece of new technology!"

"Are you sure?" Star Man distanced himself another step from Dr. Imahara. "I can't imagine Dr. Light ever doing that."

Proto Man stiffened. He was definitely more on Star Man's side of that argument Being owned by someone was definitely something he was going to have to get used to. "Well, technically I won't be able to go to Dr. Imahara's lab for the next ten years. I'm legally restricted to the continental 48 states unless I get special permission. I'll have to stay with an REA agent until the probation is up."

"And by REA agent, he means me!" The newest guest of Light Laboratories, Harry S. Briggs, came up and plopped his hand right on Proto Man's helmet. "This guy's going to spend some time with his Uncle Harry."

"...HA! BA HAHA HAA!" Bass exploded. "Oh man, this is too good!"

"Y'know, Bass, I really hate you." Proto Man shook Brigg's hand away. "Really. A lot."

"But you're a Senator, not an agent." Wave Man said.

"That's true." Harry nodded. "But November the elections are coming up, and I don't know if I've got another round of fighting the press in me again. These modern people don't really like a smoker representing their state, you know? Besides, the wife's complaining I'm not home often enough. I guess I might want to see my kids again before they grow up and move out, so I'm just going to finish my term up, get back in the Robot Ethics Agency, and be done with it."

"You mean," Proto Man corrected. "You're getting out of office early just so that you can spend the next ten years bugging me."

"Exactly! Sharp as a tack, aren't you, kid?" Harry laughed, patting an indignant Proto Man on his head again. "Y'know, Rock, you've got spunk and all, but I'm sorry. Proto Man's my favorite robot."

Mega Man grinned wide, looking at his brother as he did so. "That's okay. He's my favorite robot too."

"Hey, what about me?" Roll stuck her hands on her hips with fake annoyance. "And I do so much work around here too."

"Alright." Rock put a hand on her shoulder. "It's a tie. I'm just glad we're a family again."

Proto Man nodded, though inwardly he still felt strange about the idea. He was so used to those barriers, inside and out, that told him he could never really be one of the Lights. But those barriers were gone now. Proto Man tried to release them in his heart. After all, he was here at the lab and free, surrounded by cheery friends all happy to see him. Blues shook off his futile emotions and paid more attention to the conversation around him. Team 5 wandered back to their repair table and Bass with them, but Proto Man's siblings, owner, and "Uncle" Harry still stood by, talking together.

"You're not going to take Blues away now, are you?" Roll asked Briggs as she clung to her eldest brother's arm. "He just got here!"

"No, no, of course not." Briggs patted Roll on the head. "I'm letting him stay here the rest of today. Besides, my house isn't too far from here. It's out in the country, only a couple of miles out of Monstropolis. You can visit him if you call ahead, and I'll haul him out here every so often. You'll actually get to see him a lot more, now that he's not going to be disappearing all the time."

"Now that's going to be hard to get used to." Proto Man said. "I don't know if I can stay in one place for too long..."

"Heh, nothing's impossible for Blues!" Briggs grinned. He slapped Proto Man on the back. "You'll do just fine. As soon as you live the good ol' boring life, you might find you like it."

"Not likely, Harry. Not likely." Distracted for a moment, Proto Man looked down, bending his right arm with a frown. "Hm, that feels weird. I should get that looked at. Crystal Bot, come here. There's something going on with my elbow bindings. Could you check it out?"

Crystal Bot looked up as she was addressed, but she didn't smile as she usually did. In fact, she seemed a little nervous. She even bit her lip. However, she didn't object. She merely stepped away from her team and pointed to a door.

"Okay. Here, I left my spare parts in this A.I. lab over here. I think I have some bindings I can replace yours with. If we have to. You might just need realignment."

"Excuse me a sec, bro." Proto Man smiled at his brother. "This'll only take a minute."

"What? Elbow trouble?" Mega Man asked. "That doesn't sound bad. Auto can fix you up."

"Auto? No, he's too busy. You see that huge pile of robots he has to work with. Crystal will fix me up, and then I'll come and help you and Auto. Well, as much as I can. I'm not exactly a technician. How does that sound?"

"Very good!" Auto exclaimed, much too loudly. "Hmph! See, Proto Man cares about me! Unlike some people with technical expertise..."

Dr. Imahara found himself under Auto's scrutinized glare, and he blushed. "Heh, sorry, Auto. I did come all this way to help you. Alright, let's get to work. Rock, you help me with Wood Man. A robot made out of wood? Seriously, Wily was a madman. A very daring madman, at that."

Mega Man glanced back at his brother uncertainly. Proto Man smiled, and there was nothing on his face that indicated anything was wrong. Rock shrugged and joined Dr. Imahara at the repair table holding Team 2's most unique robot. Proto Man followed Crystal Bot into the A.I. lab, careful to shut the door behind them. The girl-bot turned to him, clutching her arm. She didn't even bother to pretend searching for elbow bindings. She knew that Proto Man was fine.

"I got your message earlier. I didn't think it would take you this long to get here." Crystal Bot said, getting more nervous the more she looked at Blues. "Um, your memory chip is ready. I wasn't expecting you to need it again."

Proto Man felt his heart sink. It should only be natural that Crystal would be weird around him. Some people weren't as good at forgetting as others, and the poor girl was so darn sensitive. Still, Proto Man could only wish his old reputation would fade away faster.

"Okay. Where do I need to plug in?"

"Come sit on this repair table back here. I've got the memories on my handheld computer."

Proto Man silently complied, and as he lifted himself over the edge of the table to sit, Crystal Bot opened one of the cabinets under the computer console and rooted around. After a minute of pulling out various other machines and parts, Crystal emerged with a small handheld computer and the appropriate orange-red wire that hooked up into a robot's neck. She went over to him and plugged it in.

"I didn't tell anybody about it, not even Forte." Crystal Bot let her giggle and pride hide her timidity as she tapped on the buttons. "You should be glad I distracted him back in Russia by stealing your shield and using it as a sled. That was fun! Best of all, Forte never even asked what brought you to Dr. Cossack's lab in the first place. He completely forgot!"

"I had to find some way to keep my sensitive memories from the REA." Proto Man said. "They had to know the complete truth about me, but I couldn't let them find out about Mega Man X. I knew I could count on you to understand this. Thank you for keeping them for me. The REA bought my story of having an obsolete memory disc with some errors in it. Heh. You didn't try to hack into my memories, did you?"

She giggled again, a little more nervously this time. "Only a little. Definitely not after I found out...about you. Yeah. I figured maybe I didn't want to learn your Proto secrets so much after all."

With that, Crystal Bot laid the handheld beside Proto Man and took a few steps away. Blues sighed, but he could hardly blame Crystal Bot for feeling that way. She was such a child compared to most robots. Of course the knowledge of his crimes would scare her. But of course, this was a teachable moment, and Blues no longer felt the sting of the past.

"You're afraid because I've killed someone." Proto Man figured he might as well state the obvious. "Aren't you?"

"Um," Crystal Bot turned back to him nervously. "Yes. It's...it's so weird though. I don't feel this way about the Wily-bots. They've done lots of bad things and killed lots of people. This thing never used to scare me before. It's just...different somehow."

"There's two explanations for that." Proto Man replied. "The first is you never put a lot of thought into evil before. I wasn't there when you served Wily, but from knowing you I can guess that all you liked about evil is the infamy you earned working for Wily."

"It's not even that." Crystal Bot squirmed. "I just liked blowing stuff up and scaring people. I didn't want to hurt anybody. I didn't even know about half the bad stuff Wily ever did. I didn't even bother looking it up until I found out about you. But still, I knew that some people had to die because of what Wily did. It's weird, though. The robot masters were bad and stuff, but it seemed like the government always had it out for you way more than it did them."

"That's the second explanation. The REA expected more of me because I'm a Light-bot. You did too. Surely you've noticed that the Wily-bots have very narrow personalities. Most of them are goofy and one dimensional. The authorities expected more from me because I'm capable of broader thought. They thought I should have known better, and they were correct. I'm complex enough to understand morality. I have no excuse."

A beep sounded from the handheld. Proto Man checked his memory. Everything he had blanked out was now once again safely stored in his own CPU. Proto Man unplugged himself and laid the cord down on the table. Now unhindered, he went over to Crystal Bot. The girl-bot didn't step away as he approached, but her hands clutched each other tightly.

"You're more complex too, Crystal." Proto Man warned her. "You've based on X, making you the world's most advanced technology."

The girl-bot almost jumped. "But no! I was so clumsy and I have - _had_ three brains just to make me work! I had to get rid of one to keep that virus from taking me over."

"That may be so, but you're still a complex robot. The REA has high expectations for you. And so do I." Proto Man looked her straight in the eye. "You're naiive in many ways, Crystal. I have to know you're mature enough to stay away from evil, no matter how much you liked serving Wily in the past."

"I am!" she nodded vigorously. "Being evil is scary! I...I didn't realize before how bad it was. But after I saw Leila at the testimonial hearing...well, before I just never knew how _evil _evil was." Growing more somber, the girl-bot stared down at her hands. She didn't have to be told that she could have been just as guilty as Proto Man, had Wily ever given her the order. She spoke again, slowly this time. "I never really put him together in my mind. I mean, there was always bad man Wily that they talked about on the news, and then there was Grandpa Wily to me. I didn't think they were the same thing until I found out about you. It's weird thinking of someone I'm so close to as being evil."

"You say this after he turned you into a mechaniloid?" Proto Man asked in disbelief. "He wasn't nice to you."

"Well yeah. I mean, being evil to me is one thing, but being really evil to other people, like humans and manipulating you and stuff, is something else. If he's mean to me, it's just personal drama." Crystal Bot sighed, her head drooping. "I really got on his nerves sometimes."

Proto Man put a hand on her shoulder. "Sonata, being mean to you _is_ evil. You're a person like everyone else. And now that you know what evil is, you're going to stay away from it, yes?"

"Yes! I promise!"

"And you're not going to try and get Bass to fight my brother anymore?"

"No way!" Crystal Bot beamed. "Not after Rock found my dad. He even asked the REA to pardon him!"

"Have they answered yet?"

"No. They said they would decide when Dad's activated." Crystal shook her head, but happily. "They'll probably let him off because Wave Man says my dad's really practical and calm. He won't have a problem being a good guy."

"Good." Proto Man relaxed and stretched his perfectly functional arms. "Alright, let's go back. No need to get everyone else suspicious. I want to be able to spend as much of this day as possible with Rock before I have to go off with...ugh, Harry Briggs."

Proto Man groaned at the mention of his "uncle". Before he could head to the door, however, Crystal Bot suddenly snatched up his arm.

"Hey Proto-kun, wait a second." Crystal Bot quickly sent her hands into her cloak. "I got something for you. Did you know that you have a mom?"

Blues was tempted to roll his eyes. "I don't have a mother. But yes, I do know that Dr. Light was married many years ago to Azuma Ayumu."

"Aw, I wanted to be the first to tell you." Crystal Bot pouted. She even stomped her foot a little.

"Heh. You're a little late for that. When I found out that Dr. Imahara was inheriting most of Dr. Light's estate, I checked his background. It didn't take me long to find out he was a distant relation."

"Oh. Well, Mrs. Light was too your mom." Crystal finally produced what she was looking for. She pulled out a photograph from her cloak, handing it to him. "There she is, with Dr. Light a long time ago. I found that in one of Dr. Light's old college journals. In that same journal she did a sketch of your face. Someone wrote on the bottom that it was what their kid would look like if they had one. Forte-kun showed me what you look like without your helmet, and the sketch is definitely you. Therefore! She's your _ommah-ni_!"

Proto Man stared at the picture. It was strange. Somehow he got the feeling he'd seen it before. But when had that been? Something about the way the young couple enthusiastically smiled at the camera seemed familiar. It was weird to see Dr. Light so young. Proto Man had never seen Dr. Light when he had brown hair. That was before his time. As for Ayumu, well, it was clear to see in the picture why anyone would want to date her. She was beautiful, well-dressed, and friendly. Sure, some might call it an assumption to call her friendly from a simple picture, but all of her personality shined outward from the way she clutched at Thomas and pulled him into the camera's range. Proto Man could imagine how shy Dr. Light had been around her. The unsocial scientist wouldn't be so sure he knew how to handle relationships, but there she was beside him, making his eyes shine in a way Blues had only seen very rarely.

They were rare because they were the times Dr. Light looked at him. Light hadn't seen much of his oldest son in the last thirty years. Proto Man began to shake. He wanted desperately to look away from the picture, but he couldn't. There it was, the image of his parents, both gone away. The glitching came, and whatever self-control Proto Man had earned for himself over the years failed him.

"Proto-kun!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "Why are you crying?"

The girl-bot at once went to comfort him, though Blues wished she wouldn't. It hurt too much to share with anyone else. Why wouldn't the dratted girl leave him alone? These were his parents, not hers.

"It's...Doctor Light." Proto Man, between sobs, tried to find the shortest words that would explain the most. "I'll never see him again..."

Much to his surprised, the tech-bot was only confused. "What are you talking about? Thirty years isn't so long a time for robots."

"What?" Proto Man lifted his head and forced down a glitch. "What are _you_ talking about?"

"You didn't see what happened? Rock and Auto put his mind into a computer immediately after he died."

"I...I left." Blues answered slowly. "I didn't want to stay there when...it happened."

"Oh. Well, Dr. Light stored his mental data in a computer console. He's going to spend thirty years testing Mega Man X's morality A.I., and then he's going to wake up and be a hologram. Isn't that so cool?" The girl-bot grew gleeful. "Dr. Light is so smart! I wish he was going to be a robot instead, but it has something to do with brain data being too complex to fit on a small CPU. But anyway, a hologram isn't bad. Sometime when there's not so many people over, you should ask Rock to show you. He's really secretive about it - he won't let even me see - but since you're his brother of course he'll let you."

"So Dr. Light going to live?"

"Sure. Technically speaking he's alive right now." Crystal Bot patted his arm. "Aw, don't worry, Proto-kun! You'll get to see your daddy again. Now you take a minute to calm down before you go back out there. Yay! I got to tell you first! Aw, you're so cute being sensitive!"

Proto Man tried not to gag. He didn't like being babied. All the same, he took several deep breaths. The questions growing in his mind he hid away. Crystal Bot was right; it was too crowded to ask Mega Man all the questions he wanted to. He also wasn't certain if Dr. Imahara knew, and was willing to bet that Mega Man didn't want the irrascible Harry Briggs to find out anything. As for the picture, Blues tucked it into his armor. Crystal Bot didn't object; it wasn't her parents, so it wasn't her picture. Proto Man lifted a hand and gently shoved away hers. That was enough "comforting". Proto Man stiffly pulled himself into order. He didn't want to go out there and look like he'd been crying. Thankfully, his years of immense self-control hadn't left him - though it was a bit difficult not to let Crystal's sugary-sweet sympathy smile get to him.

"Thank you, Crystal Bot." Proto Man managed. "This really means a lot."

"No problem, Proto-kun." the girl-bot twirled about in a circle. "It's my job to make people happy! Now let's go out. We don't want people to get suspicious!"

They exited, Crystal Bot considerably more bouncy than she needed to be as they did. Proto Man let the excited girl-bot go on ahead of him. The crowd that was her family stood outside the door, except for Gravity Man and Napalm, who were gathering up Crystal Man and all the transmodifiers. Charge Man's back panel was open, and the two robots busily stuck their robot and their machinery inside his compartment. Bass was nowhere to be seen.

"I was just going to get you." Wave Man told Crystal Bot as he shoved in another transmodifier. "We're going back to the space station now. This lab is too crowded, and we have more or less what we need to complete Crystal Man. The station is orbiting close enough for us to leave now. Do you have your tools with you?"

"Oops!" Crystal Bot gasped. "I left some in the lab! Wait for me, Wave Man! I'll be just a minute!"

And with that, Crystal Bot rushed back by Proto Man and back into the A.I. lab. Proto Man shook his head at the silly girl-bot and headed to the other side of the lab where his family was. Finally Auto was satisfied: Dr. Imahara, now undistracted, was working on Wood Man. Mega Man helped him complete some wiring, and Harry Briggs, contrary to his nature, was actually staying out of the way. He only interfered every so often to give a completely unhelpful comment. Proto Man had never seen Briggs so well behaved.

"And...done!" Rock smiled with relief and put the pliers down next to Wood Man. Catching sight of his brother, Mega Man headed right that way. "Hey, Blues, is your elbow any better?"

"Sort of." Proto Man wiggled it a bit. "Crystal Bot did what she could, but I'm starting to think that the REA doesn't really know how to work on robots very well. I'm going to need an overhaul at some point."

"We'll have to get to that then." Mega Man offered. "We can work on the Wily-bots another day. We'll get you sorted out!"

"No thanks. Not today." Proto Man shook his head. "Today I want to do something I've never done in all my life."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Spend some time working in the lab with my brother!" Proto Man merrily pulled his brother back to the others. "I'm not much of a technician, but I know a thing or two about CPU engineering, and I think I know how to use a power drill."

"Great! I don't know too much about CPUs, so that'll be a big help!" It was Mega Man's turn to lead his brother, and he pulled Proto Man over to where Cut Man lay. "Over here I need to install a new CPU. I was able to recover most of the data from Cut Man's old one, but I have to get him one of the standard issue CPUs now because no one makes his old version anymore."

"I can do that." Proto Man tapped the pillar computer next to Cut Man. "All his data is in here, right?"

"Sure is!" Auto exclaimed, lifting up a wrench to get their attention. "Hey Blues, make sure you make an extra copy of Cut Man's memories about volunteering to fight Zero! Wood Man's memory is damaged, and I want to make sure he knows why he's not working for Wily!"

"Definitely." Proto Man agreed. "I'll gather memories from all the robots that I can, just so the ones with damaged memories will have lots of evidence. It's not easy to fake memories, but some of them are bound to be suspicious anyway."

"In that case, I'll start working on cataloging the rest of the robots." Auto said. "Rock, you help me with that."

"I'll tackle Wood Man." Dr. Imahara whistled painfully at the pieces of wood on his repair table. "This guy has been through a lot. I'm going to have to cut out a new body of wood for him!"

"I guess I'll let you boys get to work on that." Roll gladly placed Wind Man down on his repair table, stretching her shoulder again. "I've got to get lunch going."

"And I'll stand here and look pretty!" Harry grinned. "I do it so well!"

"Hey Bass," Mega Man called out. "Would you mind getting some stuff from storage for us? We're going to need a lot of things. Oh, I mean if you're not busy."

Bass, who had found a seat by the main computer, now leaned back in the rolling chair far more than the chair was supposed to. His nose was buried in the autobiography, and he had just gotten to the part where General Patton made it to Europe. When Mega Man spoke, Bass peered out over the top of the book. His eyebrow twitched, hesitating just above a nasty glare.

"Eh, sure." Bass shrugged and placed the book on the console beside him. "It's not like I'm pretty enough to be lazy like Briggs over there."

The Senator burst out laughing. Proto Man, however, knew that laugh. It was the laugh that said, "you will soon pay for your out of order remark". Proto Man knew what went next. In just a couple of seconds, Briggs would lower his laugh volume and come back with a bitter comeback that was sure to make sure Bass knew which person in the room was the King of Wit. The red and grey robot knew what to do.

"Newsflash, Uncle Harry, you're not that pretty either." Proto Man didn't even bother looking from from his monitor. "Go help Bass and make yourself useful for once."

"What? I'm not pretty?" Briggs winked. "You say the most hurtful things, kid."

Despite Briggs' comment, Proto Man knew he wasn't at all disheartened. Now the human could joke and pester Bass' to his hearts content, and the supplies would thus get to the lab faster. Only for a moment did Bass think Proto Man meant to support him. It took him a second to realize Proto Man's true intent, and the dark robot made sure to glare at Blues as he accepted the supply list from Auto.

Proto Man never really cared that much for repair work, so it surprised him when he found himself enjoying the work. Well, not the work, exactly. Only Auto and Dr. Imahara really knew what they were doing, and the others had to be constantly corrected. Not that the scientists minded. Dr. Imahara never tired of work, leaving the others to wonder what would happen when they finished (if they ever would, at that rate). Still, the conversation was cheery, homey, and quite regular. Proto Man had never had many frivolous conversations, but here he was, having a nice time talking about whatever with his family and friends. Surprisingly, that applied to Bass too, who started up a converstation about World War I tanks. It turned out Bass was good at installing limbs, as that was one of the few things Crystal Bot had managed to teach him while they were in Russia. That got him off "go-fer" duty. Of course, Harry didn't like doing anything by himself, so Auto had him at another repair table scrubbing the carbon scoring out of Team 6's armor. Soon enough, the smell of lunch was in the air, and the humans cheered up even more.

Blues looked up from his computer. He'd been working on robot memories for half an hour, but he was happier than he had ever been since...since when, really? He smiled at everyone, keeping his head down so that no one would see. And no one did - besides Mega Man of course, who smiled right back.

"Hello, everyone! We're back!" Dive Man announced, breaking the tone of the room immediately. "The Cossack family return - wha? Is that Proto Man?"

Even as Dive Man spoke, both Cossacks and their grim bodyguard-bots stopped in their tracks - mostly because the shocked Dive Man stood in the door. Kalinka peeped over his shoulder, and the very instant she saw her favorite robot she let out a squeal. Skull Man shoved his aquatic brother out of the way, letting loose a very excited Kalinka. Dr. Cossack and Pharoah Man came in more calmly, but they were headed for Proto Man nonetheless.

Proto Man let out a fake groan; here came another wave of bear hugs and handshakes. Of course, he wasn't at all upset. He was as excited to see the Cossacks as they were to see him.

-t-

The last time Crystal Bot had been in the space station was months ago, and the place had changed significantly. The first time she'd gone with her team to clean the place up. Wily had abandoned it after the MM5 scheme. The cold place at that point hadn't even been capable of holding organic life. It was nothing more than carved rock, metal beams, unpowered death spikes, and the few mechaniloids wandering about that had survived Mega Man's attack on the place. Star Man's last act as Mega Man came to defeat him those many years ago was to set up an anti-inward teleport field so that the authorities couldn't reach it. Of course, he'd been hoping that Wily would want to go back. Wily didn't.

That past year, however, a change to the good side brought the station new life. Star Man and Team 5 were allowed to return, and now the place was a stunning display of modern technology with an old, 1970's space fiction flair to the design. Everyone liked that much better than modern designs. After all, where else but the 70's would you find such brilliant colors, bizarro style, and gracefully huge windows? Crystal Bot liked the new railing along the bottoms of the windows, with its gleaming reddish and green streaked color. She loved the frequent display panels, the highly polished floors, and the daring red numbers painted on every deck and door, all connected by a red stripe along the wall. But still, she found herself focusing on that silly railing.

The whole place was redesigned by Star Man and a human designer that Sonata hadn't met. Of course the place was now pressurized, and humans dwelt on the station. Team 5 was still in its own probation, and there were plenty of scientists that wanted to come up anyway. Crystal Bot understood, but that didn't mean she liked it. Fortunately, room 5-92 was there, and it was hers. She'd been working very hard on repairing her father, but for the moment she wanted a short break. The girl-bot held her palm over the doorplate of 5-92, and the two double doors pulled away to reveal her own personal laboratory.

Since leaving Wily, Crystal Bot worked for Bass. She'd only seen this place for the first time a few weeks ago. As such, as nice as it was, it really wasn't up to par. Crystal Bot's standards were truly high, but they were at least sated by this lab.

It wasn't a big place, by any means. That was fine. Crystal Bot didn't want it too big to attract the attention of other scientists. Aside from the door and the wall immediately across it, the room was oval in shape, wider than it was long. To the left was the automated machine, enclosed with a tempered and blue-tinted transparent alluminum cover. On the left side closer to the door were Crystal Bot's machine controls, comm center, and research computer. The upper left corner was similarly decked out, though it had less counterspace. Most of the room on the right side was taken up by an adjustible repair table. The far right part of the wall held the shelving units, little square cubbies for her materials.

Crystal Bot ignored all of it. Instead she went straight across the room. That flat wall was covered in tools, each firmly put in place. She ignored those too. Instead she reached down and hovered her hand over the handle of a cordless hammer drill. Then she backed away two steps as the wall came forward, opening up. The space inside? Remarkably boring. It was little more than a shallow closet, with nothing obvious inside.

Crystal entered this "closet", letting the wall close in behind her. As it hit the closed position, it locked into place with a thunk and the mechanical clicks and clunks of unseen machinery. All light disappeared. More gears spun, and the featureless room went downward. Moments later, opposite wall panel slid away to reveal an entirely different lab. This one didn't quite meet up to her standards either, but that was Crystal's own fault. The tools and gadgets and gizmos all spread out under the repair table and all across the floor of the slant-roof lab were all the results of Crystal Bot's tinkering. It was her glorious mess.

But the most glorious part of the room was Zero.

Sonata daintily strolled up to the massive robot laying there on the repair table, letting her feet kick in celebration now that she knew no one could see. She clapped her hands, giggled as loudly as she dared, then patted Zero on the cheek. Reaching down, she touched his neck and activated him.

"Wakey, wakey, Zero buddy!"

His eyes opened, though only to a squint. He twitched uncomfortably, and though he moved his hands upwards, they barely rose an inch and did that only with shaking. All Zero had the energy to do was turn his head to the shiny girl-bot and glare. Crystal Bot was fine with that. She giggled delightedly, then promptly planted her elbows on Zero's chest and rested her head on her hands.

"Hey, Zero! I hooked you up with a standard robotic power core! Doesn't it _suuuuuuuuuuuck_?"

With all the energy he could muster, Zero forced his lip into an upward sneer. Crystal laughed louder.

"I know you don't like it, Zero. You're so underpowered with this model power core." She tapped on his chest for emphasis. "But I didn't want you going and messing up my little setup. I just want you to be awake enough to listen. First of all, remember to be grateful! I worked so hard to hide you on the space station. I had to keep both Mega Man's end and our end free of prying eyes. It wasn't easy, you know!"

Crystal Bot winked at him before continuing. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'well, gee, Crystal Bot, how did you trick the authorities?' I have to admit, I had a little help. My grandpa was in the hospital, and he wasn't going to live for much longer, so he told me a little secret: there's a replica of you hidden up in Canada! You have no idea what kind of trouble I had to go through to get it! I mean, it wasn't too hard to pretend it's replacement supplies, but then I had to replicate all the damage you went through so that it would trick the Robotic Ethics Association. But I'm a true genius, and so all of it worked out just fine!"

Crystal lifted herself off of Zero's chest and spun around as she boasted, letting her green coat twirl about her. She suddenly wished she had a fancier dress with a long skirt to twirl in, but it was a bit late to be thinking of that.

"And so now you're my robot." Crystal Bot neared him again, not at all afraid of the way his arms shook with fury. "Oh, you thought you had me with that whole virus thing, didn't you? Aw, that's so cute. But no, I figured you out. It took a lot of careful work with my pipi, but I managed to find the problem."

Crystal tapped the forehead of his helmet, and where once had been a blue gem was now an empty space. "It was up here. Your new radio wave technology. Well, it's not really 'radio' because it's more advanced, but you know what I mean. Radio-ish. That's how you were transmitting the virus. Weird, though. I mean, Dr. Wily goes through all this trouble just to build you, and then he makes your transmit gem so fragile. As much as I'd like to study that technology, I can't risk the virus. I had the gem burned up. It took a lot of work, but the thing's gone now. There's going to be no more of this 'Lord Zero' silliness, okay? You savvy?"

She giggled, not bothering to see if Zero responded. She liked the word "savvy". It was now her new word, and she was going to say it as often as she liked.

"You're wondering why I saved you, aren't you?" Crystal leaned over him, stroking his long hair. It was simply too nice to resist. "It's because of Mega Man X. Well, his brain, really. I have a brain like his. Sort of. It's similar enough. Robots like us...how should I say this? Let's just say it's really hard to be a robot like me and X. We've got all these confusing emotions that don't really make much sense. We're supposed to be more human. Sheesh, if having more complex emotions and understanding makes us more human, it really must be hard being one of them. There's just so much of myself that I don't understand...it really sucks."

Crystal Bot leaned over Zero, poking his nose. "It's not so bad for me. I have my Forte-kun, and he's so smart! Dr. Light told him a bunch of stuff about how my brain works, and Forte watches out for me. He's my best friend in the whole world, and I'd be really sad without him. That's where you come in. I have a friend, but Mega Man X doesn't. He's going to wake up in three years and find that nobody's like him. He'll feel all alone. I've got my team and Forte to work with, so I don't have the time to be the good friend that X needs. So I want you to be his friend. You've got a brain like X's because Dr. Wily stole the technology from him. That way he'll be your friend too, and you won't be lonely.

"Still, you've got several years before X is ready to wake up, and you've got to learn to be a good guy. I found some ethics programs that Dr. Light had in his lab and he's using them to test X's morality too. It won't be the same because Dr. Light himself is testing X, but you'll at least have something in common with X when he wakes up. You'll have something to talk about. I'll be nice to you too! Until X wakes up, I'll come here and read you stories and the newspaper. That way you can learn all about the world and all the nice people in it. I hope you like Korea as much as I do, because I have so many Korea books! If you're nice, I'll give you enough power to tell me what you like and what you don't like. But you have to be nice."

Sonata pulled a zip drive out of her hood. She stuck it in Zero's neck. "There you are. Those are your morality programs. Dr. Light made them specially for Forte, but I've adapted them to work on you. Don't try to resist. I've already taken down your firewall. They won't hurt you, so don't worry about that. Also, don't worry about your power core. I don't know how to make more fortenium, but I've got some clues how. It's going to take a lot of research, but I can do it...eventually. I've got thirty years, at least. And you've got thirty years to prove that I can trust you. If you're mean, I'll blow you up. But if you're nice, you get to be X's friend and live. Don't worry about the government. If the Lights like you enough, they'll arrange a pardon for you. It's so nice to have connections! Time to go to sleep mode! Nighty night!"

With that, Crystal Bot did as she said, and Zero's eyes shut as he went into sleep mode. He wasn't deactivated, as his eyes proved by moving frantically under his closed lids. Crystal frowned, judging him for a moment. After a minute, she shrugged and patted his hands, gently placing them on his abdomen. He looked more like a gentle sleeper that way.

"I'll be back later to read you from my history book, Zero." Crystal said over her shoulder as she headed back to her secret elevator. "You'll like Yi Sun Sin. He's a general that never lost a battle! He once defeated 133 Japanese boats with only 12 on his side! Isn't that so cool?"

Crystal Bot deactivated the lights and headed back into her normal lab. The echo of her giggling followed her all the way up. Zero heard none of it, but slept more or less peacefully as the morality programs went to work.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- You didn't think I was just going to leave Zero dead, did you? Pssht. Anyway, Yi Sun Sin is a real Korean general that lived a long time ago, and the aforementioned battle was real. Many accounts say Yi had 13 ships instead of twelve, but the thirteenth is claimed to be a "spirit ship". Admiral Yi is also known for his use of the _Kapuksan_, turtle ship, which is essentially an armored boat shaped more or less like a turtle.

- I hope you like Proto Man's and Zero's ending. Man, and to think back when I was writing How Many I didn't have a clue as to what I was going to do with him. He sort of took a life of his own. It always bothered me in the games that PM never liked Dr. Light. You'd think that the closer he got to Mega Man the more accepting he'd be of his creator. So there has to be a legitimate reason why PM feared he could never go back home. And thus his plotline was born.

Character Profiles!

=====Dive Man

**"Yuck. I feel seasick. Bleah."**

Good point: Keen ear

Bad point: Motion sickness

Like: Coral reefs

Dislike: Pirate Man

Dive Man is one of the four robots Dr. Cossack was first working on right when Dr. Wily kidnapped Kalinka. As such, he was activated as a bad guy, and a devious one at that. He loved his underwater fortress, and was quite happy to fight Mega Man during the MM4 scheme. However, while tricky, he didn't prove to be too much of a threat to Mega Man and was one of the bomber's earliest victims.

For two years Dive Man, as well as the rest of his siblings, were held at the robot museum in Monstropolis, California. At this point, Dr. Cossack had already reprogrammed him, and was trying to convince the authorities to let his robot go. Dr. Cossack didn't much appreciate Americans holding his robots, but the REA could hardly be blamed for wanting to keep a threat in check. Ironically, letting Cossack have his robots back proved a lot safer than keeping them in the robot museum, but that's another topic.

In any case, Dr. Cossack got most of his robots back (it took another year to get Pharoah, Skull, and Ring Man back), and immediately Dive Man was appalled at his past. He was very pleased with his creator for saving him from being destroyed, and as a result was instantly extremely loyal to Dr. Cossack. Dive Man became very afraid that someone was going to reprogram him again, so he added a loyalty failsafe to his own mind and passlocked it several times. He boasted that not even Dr. Wily could get past that failsafe, but he was never captured again, so he never knew for sure.

One of the first things Dive Man did when he was back in Russia was go to check on his former robot master fortress. He really liked it, especially the whales that were in it. He convinced Dr. Cossack to build more of the whale-bots to protect Russian waters. The Russian government decided that it would be Dive Man's job to maintain and oversee operations of these robots in the Pacific Ocean (under Russian guidance, of course), and Dive Man generally does the same sort of job that Splash Woman does, only Dive Man has more authority in his country.

Also, Dive Man is authorized to leave familiar territory to persue underwater threats to Russia. Namely, Wily robots. He and Bubble Man frequently fought, though Dive Man and his mechaniloids managed to keep him under control. Pirate Man replaced Bubble as Dive Man's rival shortly after MM7, and proved a worse threat. Or perhaps just more annoying. Pirate Man didn't care so much about actually attacking Russia as he did about getting treasure and aggravating the Cossack-bot. Pirate Man even stashed his loot once in one the whale-bots to get the loot past one of Dive Man's blockades. Just his luck, that particular whale was due for scheduled maintenance that day. Dive Man never let him live it down.

One day, Dive Man began to hear rumors of a mermaid across the ocean. Making some pitiful excuse about Pirate Man, Dive Man headed for the Californian coast. He there encountered Splash Woman for the first time. Dive Man admired her very much, and even though he technically had more power than her, he considered her an equal and possibly even superior. He was always impressed that Splash Woman could control not only her mechaniloids with her ocarina, but also real sea animals. Dive Man programmed his mechaniloids so that they also would listen to her, but he's been far too shy to actually tell Splash Woman about it. Pirate Man encountered Dive Man one day when he was on the way to Monstropolis, and that was when they both discovered how much the other liked Splash Woman. A bitter rivalry, and headaches for Splash Woman, ensued.

During the Team 9 scheme, Dive Man had hoped to somehow save Splash Woman so that she didn't have to fight Mega Man, but he got there too late. He was the one who brought Splash Woman's remains to Light Laboratories. He beat Pirate Man, though, and he never let the latter live it down. As much as Dive Man isn't good at comebacks against Pirate Man, he's the superior of the two in actions.

Of course, you know that Dive Man's rivalry led him to fight Zero. And that got him nowhere, both against Zero, in Splash Woman's eyes, and with his master. He was the first volunteer repaired by Auto, mainly because Dr. Cossack was on his way. No, Dive Man didn't ask Dr. Cossack's permission first. He claimed he merely happened to find out about Zero when he was "in the neighborhood". Cossack knows better than to believe him. Dive feels a little guilty about this, but Dr. Cossack isn't mad about it. He managed to get the truth out of Dive, and now he thinks it's funny.

=====Bright Man

**"Something comes to me in a flash!"**

Good point: Long on ideas

Bad point: Talks too much

Likes: Invention

Dislikes: Unmoral districts

Bright Man is Cossack's tech-bot, though he's not as good as Auto in a lab. Bright Man is classy, witty, and mildly stuck up. He was designed to provide emergency power and light in case of an emergency in Dr. Cossack's lab. Thus, Bright Man is designed to know just about anything about Dr. Cossack's lab. That made him Wily's prime target when Wily wanted to initiate the MM4 scheme. Wily stole the incomplete Bright Man's CPU and gained access to Cossack's computers.

Bright Man never fully forgave himself for this, even after Dr. Cossack recovered and reprogrammed him. However, over time he grew more secure in himself, and he spent the years since MM4 working by Dr. Cossack's side and assisting with his biological experiments, as well as shouldering the burden of much of Cossack's robotics work. He maintains the robots of the Russian lab, and as much autonomy, just like most of the other Cossack-bots.

He gets along very well with his siblings, though personally he wishes they were more talkative. Dust Man is gloomy and Skull Man is scary, but generally Ring Man is a pretty good friend of his. Bright Man wasn't so sure he would like Ring Man at first, because Ring Man was Dr. Wily's idea. However, Ring Man is the most normal of the Cossack-bots (including Bright Man), so his fears were unfounded. He and Toad Man get along pretty good as well, though Bright makes sure to stay out of the greenhouse whenever Toad Man is at work.

Bright Man was a bit less than happy when Dr. Cossack decided to let Bass and Crystal Bot stay in their laboratory, but he couldn't object. Bass turned out to be away most of the time, for which Bright Man was only thankful early on. Very quickly Bright Man realized that Bass was the only person that could really keep Crystal Bot under control, and the girl-bot amused herself frequently by annoying Bright Man with her silly pranks. He is happy she's gone, but is pretty grateful for the chance to learn from her knowlege. Still, he doesn't want her coming back any time soon.

Only Pharoah, Skull, and Dive Man are in Monstropolis right now. Bright Man is back in Russia taking care of the lab while the doctor is away. He's trying to keep Drill Man from having a "robot party" in the basement.


	29. Roll's Ending

Splash Woman sat on her boulder, contentedly overlooking her harbor. She'd been very busy in the past few weeks with all the shipments coming in, but the plus side to the business was that the steady stream of cargo carriers made everyone sure to be extra careful. Splash Woman's primary job was to check on the fishermen and make sure they stayed out of the temporarily widened shipping lanes and that the sea creatures were aware of the boating situation. It wouldn't do if a poor dolphin or shark crashed into one of the boats.

But for now those tasks were done. A few of Splash Woman's dolphin mechaniloids were underwater, patroling about just in case of emergencies. Splash couldn't imagine that there would be one. The boats that passed by her right in the distance were too many to be careless. People would be watching, and when people watched, criminals stayed away.

Splash Woman peacefully swirled the water about with her tail, and she peered out into the distance. She loved watching the waters. She did it so often that it constantly surprised her how little the repeat experieneces dimmed their potency. It was wonderful to stare out into the blue horizon, watching where the water met the far away sky. She squinted her eyes hard, as if doing so would blend the two together and create a magnificent, blue ocean sky, with angelfish and jellies swimming in the clouds. The mer-bot's voice rose into the air as she sang of this imaginary world. The tune stained the air the same way tea stains hot water, only the song was cool and refreshing, a blessed flavor to all ears.

Two of those ears belonged to Dive Man. The Cossack-bot walked down the beach behind her, listening in a trance as he made his way to the woman-bot. He smiled at her, getting nearer but not daring to interrupt her. Sadly, all things end, and after a few minutes the merrow ended her haunting melody.

"I know you're back there, Dive Man." she said with only the slightest turning of the head, so that Dive Man couldn't see her smile.

"I know." Dive Man stepped into the water. "I wasn't sneaking up. I was just listening."

Splash Woman just sat there, moving her trident away so that it didn't point at Dive Man. The Cossack-bot didn't dare sit on the same boulder as Splash, but he overcame his shyness enough to sit on the next rock over where he could look up at her.

"So how did the fight with Zero go?"

"You have to ask?" Dive Man winced. "Um...it went. The good news is Pirate Man didn't do much better."

Splash Man's laugh sounded like the rush of waves on the shore. Dive Man fidgeted uncomfortably, and though amused, Splash Woman couldn't help taking pity on him.

"Oh dear! Well, I didn't watch the footage of the battle, but I've heard the rumors." she said. "It makes me glad I couldn't go. But still, I do feel a little ashamed I couldn't do my part and wear down Zero for Mega Man. I don't like being left out."

"There's no way in the world I would ever let you go." Dive Man, seeing Splash Woman's eyebrow raise, quickly backpedaled. "I mean, um, well, it would have been nice if you were there. Your trident is very powerful."

Splash Woman huffed a bit, looking away at the open sea. "That's why I wanted to go. I at least should have called Mega Man and told him to come get my power. I don't know if he would have had the time, but at least I could have helped that way." Turning back to her visitor, she managed something of a smile. "And what about you? You're not in trouble with the boss are you? Or did Dr. Cossack say that you could come to Monstropolis and fight Zero?"

"Heh heh..." Dive Man tugged at his neck armor. "Um, not exactly. Dr. Cossack...well, he's nicer than most masters, I think. He's not angry at me, and in fact he's snagged a few business opportunities by coming to Monstropolis. But...he's still not really pleased with me. Oh, he's letting me say goodbye and all, but that's mostly because Kalinka wanted to come to the beach."

Dive Man pointed over to the right, where Splash Woman could indeed see the Cossacks, if she engaged her zoom vision. It was a good day to be on the beach, and Kalinka seemed to be making the most of it. She could, at last, wear her designer swimsuit. A one piece, of course. Dr. Cossack and Skull Man didn't approve of bikinis, and neither did Dive Man, for that matter. Still, Kalinka was happy enough, and she and Skull Man, as well as some teenager that Dive Man didn't know, were all building a two-tiered sandcastle together. Dr. Cossack hung back in a sun chair, pretending to read a book. Splash Woman was tempted to laugh; she knew Dr. Cossack was pretending, because every so often he would peer out suspiciously at the young male next to Kalinka.

"I don't know why Kalinka wanted to go to the beach." Dive Man shrugged. "She's always saying it's too hot in California. Anyway, lucky for me, because I get to see you at least one more time."

"Um, alright..." Splash Woman never knew what to do when Dive Man said things like that. She avoided slapping the water with her tail. "You make it sound really dramatic. You're not going to be scrapped are you?"

"Oh no, not at all." Dive Man slumped down, resting on his knees. "I just have to stay in Russian waters in the Pacific for six months. I can't come out here for a while."

"Wonderful! Yar-har! All the better for me and the lady Splash to get better acquainted!"

Water dripped out of the speaker's tri-corner hat as he rose from the water. Pirate Man lifted a claw to the air with a glorious laugh, then stepped out onto a rock to give himself a stage - though of course he didn't pick a larger boulder than Splash Woman's. He bowed gracefully to the lady-bot.

"Ahoy, Love!" Pirate Man practically sang. "I heard yer lovely siren song in the air, and then I heard somethin' almost as good! Dive Man won't be in the way anymore!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Dive Man snarled. "You can't!"

"Ho ho! But I can! What is a landlubber like you going to do about it?" Not waiting for an answer, Pirate Man turned to the prettier of the two. "Ah, but surely you're not impressed? I, of my own free will as a gentleman of the sea, went off to go fight the worst enemy of the earth!"

"Oh?" Splash Woman lifted an eyebrow. "And did _you _defeat Zero?"

"Er, ehm...well...I damaged him! And I lasted longer than Dive Man!" he took a second to glance hatefully at Dive as if it were his fault Pirate Man didn't win. "And now I've earned my pardon. I'm a free robot now! Har har!"

"WHAT?" Dive Man stomped down on his rock. "That can't be true!"

"Ha, ha, but it is! They've pardoned all the robots that fought Zero." Pirate Man widened his wicked grin. "That means me too! And by a delightful twist of fate, I was able to get a word in with a Mr. Tim Hathers, that same man which is the lovely lady's boss. Looks like I've got Neptune on my side, Divey boy! Ar, ha-har!"

"NO! Argh, why did Mega Man have to repair _you_?" Dive Man would have pulled out his hair if he had any. Instead he turned to Splash Woman, desperately hoping she would do something. "Splash Woman, please speak to the Admiral! He's got authority over the entire coastline, so he can assign Pirate Man far away to the south! I mean, wouldn't he be _so_ useful categorizing seismic movements?"

Dive Man shot a daring look over at his rival, but Pirate Man simply waved him off with his claw, still overconfident. He laughed like the dragging of chains across a ship's deck.

"Wait, what? Pfah!" Pirate Man said. "My lady Splash would never do such a thing to me. Wouldn't you, Love? You'd get terribly bored here without your Pirate Man, wouldn't you? So you'd make certain that the good Admiral Hathers had me stationed at that there harbor, right?"

With that, Pirate Man shifted his hat upwards, making sure he got a clear view of Splash Woman. So too did Dive Man look to Splash Woman for an answer. Of course she wasn't going to recommend Pirate Man to Monstropolis waters...was she? Actually, Splash Woman was so flabbergasted she didn't know what to say. Dealing with thieves and rescuing drowning humans was far simpler than figuring out the two weirdos before her. The mer-bot sighed with the ocean sound you hear when you lift a shell to your ear.

Luckily, Splash Woman didn't have to say a word. Right at that moment, a teleport beam landed in the shallow water of the shore, and out of it Wave Man materialized. The Team 5 water-bot breathed in deep the ocean air - there were some things he didn't like about working on a space station. Refreshed by the salty breeze somehow (it wasn't as if Wave Man had a sense of smell), he made his way down to the others. Seeing Pirate Man gave him pause, but only for a moment. He shrugged and moved toward the mer-bot.

"Good morning, Splash Woman." Wave Man said. "I came to tell you that your upgrades are nearly ready. Well, and to see the ocean again. There's no ocean in space, and I'm still trying to convince the humans that they need to install a swimming pool."

Perhaps it was only to Pirate and Dive Man's auditory receptors that Splash Woman laughed a little louder than necessary at Wave Man's pleasantries. In any case, she gestured for Wave Man to approach. He did, and he reached up to hand her a zip drive. She plugged it into her neck, instantly smiling at the data she saw.

"That's what we intend to do." Wave Man explained. "As you can see, we do have a way for your tail to convert into legs, but we're trying to hammer out the details so that it doesn't impair your swimming abilities. When it's complete, you should be able to go from tail to legs and back again without too much trouble."

"Why thank you, Wave Man!" Splash Woman beamed. She winked at the other two robots. "Would you believe these two, Wave? They actually thought that I wanted _them_ to fight for me against Zero. All I really wanted was to be able to do it myself."

"Madam, I don't mind making you land compatible," Wave Man somberly added. "But Zero was a very dangerous robot. I am very happy for your sake you didn't have to fight him."

"Oh, poo." Splash Woman teased. "You're not going to treat me like these fellows, are you?"

"Not at all." Wave Man shook his head. "But I remember Dr. Light saying once that he wanted robots that could do more than fight. He mentioned your grouping of robots in that regard, saying that some things are too valuable to waste on war."

"Aw, you flatterer!"

Splash Woman lifted her hand to her mouth, tittering like a school girl. Pirate Man was sure it was an act...mostly. And of course Dive Man realized that Wave Man hadn't flattered her at all; he merely quoted Dr. Light. He didn't mean it personally...did he? Both the Cossack-bot and the pirate glared viciously at Wave Man, but before the Team 5 bot could notice them, Splash Woman had him distracted. After pulling out the zip drive and stashing it in her armor, Splash Woman shifted her trident to her right arm so that she could reach for Wave Man with her left.

"You don't have to go back to your space station, do you?" Splash Woman asked. "I almost never get to see you these days. Why don't you take a break from all that space stuff and come with me? I get so _lonely_ out here by myself, and you've seen so much more of the ocean than I have. I would absolutely love it if you would join me to do a little exploring."

Wave Man, a little puzzled, glanced at Pirate and Dive Man with some uncertainty. However, he just shrugged again. "I do miss the ocean. There was this one coral reef not too far from Wily's last castle...I miss the place. I haven't seen it in over a year. Would you like to see it?"

"Certainly! Help me down from here, would you?"

Wave Man took Splash Woman's hand and carefully brought her down into the water. It was shallow, but enough to cover Splash Woman's tail. Before either Dive Man or Pirate Man could do anything about it, the fishy-bot flitted right past them and out into deeper waters. They were too dumbfounded at that point to bother much about Wave Man, who followed her out more slowly.

As Wave Man made his way too her, Splash Woman called out to her admirers. "Play nice, boys! Pirate Man, I wouldn't trust you to go good if someone promised you Fort Knox! Does Admiral Hathers even know you're out here? And Dive Man, you're not very good at listening! If you want to start, listen to me now and make sure Pirate Man gets out of my harbor! Bye now, boys!"

With that, Wave Man and Splash Woman disappeared into the blue, and the two robots left behind started to pick up their hanging jaws.

-t-

This beach wasn't too far from Monstropolis. In fact, the pier where Splash Woman worked was only a few miles to the north. This part of the beach, unlike the northern place, was completely deserted. It wasn't much for tourists, either. There were too many rocks about, for one, and the waves were never high enough to be very appealing to surfers. California had other beaches with more remarkable water movement. Besides, surfers might dare hurricanes or tsunamis, but they tended to be much more sensible when it came to the dark brown rocks that jutted out from the flowing sea foam.

Roll wondered if there was a volcano nearby, or had been one a long time ago to leave all the pitted rocks there. She didn't wonder very long. Instead the girl-bot scrambled over a couple of larger ones and settled herself on one of the rare patches of clean sand. Thus settled, she looked back towards the land, shading her eyes with her hand to make sure it was nothing but stray grass on the upward hill away from the beach. There was no one. No one was on either side of the beach, left and right. Out on the ocean, no boats. Roll was completely alone, and she took a deep breath.

"GrimMoody!" she called out. "GrimMoody! I know you're there! Come out now! I want to talk to you!"

Silence. The wind blew a little at the grass, and Roll's hair swung. The girl-bot stuck her hands on her hips, getting a lot more annoyed.

"GRIMMOODY!" she yelled louder. "I'm not leaving until you show up!"

"Yeah, I'm comin', I'm comin'." A voice grumbled cheerfully behind her. "Don't get your robot panties in a bunch."

Roll turned to find the person she expected: a dark blonde girl with spectacles, very dull looking and unnoticable in a crowd. But there were no crowds here, allowing the boring girl to be fully visible for once. She had her hands casually stuck in the pockets of her jeans, and she wore a black shirt with huge silver lettering. It read "ROCK", and had the pattern of a dragon in the "R". The robot took no notice of the author's fashion. She had questions, and she was bound and determined to put answers to them.

"Alright Moody..." Roll suddenly found that all of her questions, but none of her confusion, had dropped out of her mind. How could she invoke the author and then forget? She scrambled a moment. "Moody...why did you really send me back? I don't understand it. You told me to save the universe, but I didn't...I didn't actually _do_ anything. I thought I was supposed to fight Zero, but I lost. Why didn't you come and tell me that I wasn't supposed to?"

Grimm grinned, seeming to enjoy Roll's confusion. "Because it wasn't my place. I write all that happens, but there are limits to what I can do in your universe. They are limits of taste, but limits nonetheless. I can't make your choices for you, Roll. You have to decide how you're going to overcome your obstacles yourself. To interfere with your choices, though possible, is pretty crude for someone in my position."

"But I didn't actually do anything." Roll repeated. "I don't even understand..."

"That's true." Grimm nodded. "You very nearly ruined it all. Your brother depends on you to be cheery, and you spent the entire time you've been back moping around and acting like the world was going to end."

Roll paled, her cheeks tightening so much it looked like she was going to faint. She almost did, and her only audible response was a pitiful squawk, "What?"

GrimMoody nodded. "Yep. Y'see Roll, your primary role as a peaceful character is to make it so that life is worth living. Think of it this way: all a barista does is make coffee, yes? Well, a bad barista can be more troublesome than you expect. Say a person ill-content with life, like Wily or someone, comes in for coffee. They feel sorry for themselves, and are on the verge of giving up on life or peace and doing something extreme. A bad barista gives poor service, making a nasty latte and not being polite. The belief of the world being a bad place is thus enforced. However, a good barista will be cheerful, competent, and suggest to the person low in self-esteem that perhaps the world isn't as bad as they think - that there is at least one person in the world that isn't cruel or stupid. The barista doesn't even know he does it, but that's the result of doing his simple job well."

"Oh, I see." Roll wanted to blush. "But...but I wasn't that bad, was I?"

Moody shrugged. "You could've been worse, but you also could've been better. Your brother depends on you in a very intangible way, and he needs you to believe in him."

"I understand that now. I did understand it once, but then the apocalypse..."

"Don't think about that anymore. Think on what you did do: you told Proto Man about the anti-virus companies Wily established. That avenue for Wily's scheme is gone. The future that was once to be is no more, and while you weren't perfect, you've done enough to stop it from happening."

"I don't understand..." Roll found herself fidgeting. "In the other timeline, Rock was tricked by Epidemic Man and killed. In this timeline, Epic Man tried the same trick but it didn't work. What happened?"

"That was the undoing of Dr. K's work." Moody said, stiffening up. "Dr. K was always very tragically bent with his creations. He preferred darker storylines and horrible fates. A real dramatic type, you know. As powerful as Rock is, Dr. K needed him to fail if his envisioning of the dark future was to come true. Rock was the invincible robot, so he needed to die for the new future to come to pass. Proto Man is the sneakiest, meaning he needed to be caught. Bass is the most bold, and therefore he needed to have what he valued most taken from him: his strength. But now that Dr. K's future is not going to come true for you, all three robots can stick by their true identities. The future is now open and clear to you."

"That's wonderful!" Roll said, though the enthusiasm in her voice waned the longer she spoke. "But...this means that some robots aren't going to exist anymore. Lots of robots were built to stop Mavericks, and if there isn't going to be a Maverick virus, those robots - reploids, I mean - won't ever get to live."

"That's very true." GrimMoody nodded, pulling her hands out of her pockets and stretching. "But also think of it this way: the robots that weren't going to be built or were destroyed because of the Maverick Virus now get to live. Also, don't worry about your friends. A scientist known as Dr. Rudenbaker is still going to build a robot designed after his daughter and name her Alia. Also, Dr. Reiko Infune will still exist, and well, she's pretty eccentric. She'll build Axl, still based on Bass and Crystal Bot. Only this time they'll both be alive, and Dr. Inafune will be able to present Axl to them. Yeah, they don't exactly take it well."

Roll giggled as Moody went on. "Also, you might note that Signas was built because Sigma went bad, and the future Dr. Cain wanted a replacement. Now, Signas _wasn't_ going to exist, but then a certain blonde girl-bot convinces Dr. Cain that he needs an administrative robot to handle paperwork and provide leadership for a robot police force. Pallette and Layer will still be alive, and so will Iris."

"Iris?" Roll asked. "Who's she?"

"Oh, that's right." Moody lifted one side of her mouth. "Zero never told you about her. Don't worry about it. You'll meet her in a century or so."

"But what about Zero?" Roll walked closer to GrimMoody, clutching her hands tightly together. "All Zero - the good Zero - ever wanted was to make up for all the bad things he ever did. Is there any way he can live? Can't you stop the government from incinerating him? That's what I heard they were going to do."

"You heard correctly." GrimMoody smiled. "But don't worry about that either. You've already saved him."

"I have? But how?"

"You said the right words. It's like I was saying about the good barista. You say the right words and good things come to pass. Don't worry, you'll find out what happened after Dr. Light comes back. That's when Zero wakes up. For now, you'll just have to wait and see."

"Oh wow, that's wonderful! So I guess the reploids will be alright after all!"

"No, they won't. There aren't going to be any reploids."

"What?" Roll froze. "But you said-"

"I said, Axl, Signas, Alia, etcetera are going to be alright. I didn't say they would be reploids." GrimMoody took on a look that was a little too cocky for Roll's taste. Fortunately GrimMoody noticed Roll's reaction for once, so she let her grin fade away. "You see, the reploids were created by Dr. Cain in 21XX when he recovered X's body. This time, he's not going to. Now, people go on and on about Dr. Light and Dr. Wily being geniuses, and they were, but what a lot of people don't realize is that they aren't the only geniuses in time. Dr. Cain was nearly as intelligent as them, and with X in his hands he was able to create a line of robots based on X. Since he's not going to have that opportunity, reploids will not exist. Instead Auto and Crystal Bot are going to have a much longer time and a better understanding of the technology, thus making sure that the next generation of robots is more advanced, but also safer."

"That's good!" Roll nodded. "I bet Crystal Bot is going to become really famous, just like Auto!"

"Yes, she is. Through her the legacy of Wily's engineering will survive. Your brother and Auto also keep going the legacy of Dr. Light, and both of these together for over a century form two branches of robotics: Light science and Wily science. The Light robots are tougher and with better weapons, but the Wily ones are more versatile and are built faster. You always knew how quickly Dr. Wily could whip up a batch of mechaniloids, didn't you?"

"Did I ever!" Roll exclaimed. "But what about the Zero virus? We never cured it in the first timeline. If reploids in this timeline caught it, how would we stop things from playing out just like Dr. K envisioned?"

"Simple. You guys cure the Zero virus." Moody grinned. "Rock and Auto still have that third of Crystal Bot's brain that they're working on. Not too long from now your brother is going to engineer a new anti-virus that can be installed in any X-grade robots. He was designed to be a science-bot, you know. Dr. Light will help him. Oh, and since Dr. Imahara isn't dead, he is able to study Dr. Light's mind storage capsules and engineer them so that they last longer."

"That's better than I ever imagined!" Roll clapped her hands. "So everything's going to be alright now?"

"No! Of course not!" GrimMoody scoffed. "Why would it be? There's always going to be wars and despair and poverty. These things don't go away by getting rid of Dr. Wily. To make those things go away you'd have to just off the entire human race."

"But...but..." Roll sputtered. "But I went through so much! I went back in time, just like you told me! I thought the future was fixed!"

"No, not really." Moody shrugged. "Nothing is ever fixed. Humans are a fallen race. We do all kinds of bad whatnot. It's an inevitability. Robots are built by us, so you can't expect them to be good either."

"If it was really as bad as that," Roll angrily stomped her foot, leaving a sharp imprint on a nearby rock. "Then why? Why did you do this? What was the point?"

"First of all, calm down." GrimMoody said. "Secondly, because I wanted to."

The human sighed, absentmindedly tucking some stray hair behind her ear so the breeze wouldn't mess with it. "It always bothered me what Dr. K did. As a writer myself, I always feel that its the characters that should determine what happens to a story. But he never gave you a chance. Instead, he made the future something ugly, something depressing and not really appealing. Some of the things - and this part you wouldn't understand - about the future were actually good. Only, if you notice it, at the end of every one of Sigma's attacks, the world was actually worse off than before, even though the Maverick Hunters defeated him every time."

"I...I did notice that..." Roll admitted. "Though I think a couple of times it did come out even."

"Perhaps. But the point is, you have eight different fights against Sigma, and not once did the world actually get better when the Maverick Hunters won. I mean, sure, the world would have been worse off if the Hunters never won, but there were no victories. No wins. I already told you what happened in that timeline. I'm not going to repeat it." GrimMoody took a couple of steps forward until only three feet separated the two. "What I did was level the playing field. None of us can destroy evil, but we can do something about it when it happens to us. Proto Man once told Bass that there will never be peace. He said there will always be evil scientists or countries with delusions of nuclear grandeur or some other villain to cause trouble. While his statement was correct, his sentiment was not. Preventing evil is not like curing diseases; it's like eating. We eat every day, or we get sick. Evil is always present among us. It's us who have to choose not to indulge it."

With that, GrimMoody seemed to droop. She turned away from Roll, focusing instead on the deep ocean waters and the distant sky. Moody stirred the rising foam with a toe, and only then did Roll notice the human's bare feet. The author didn't seem to notice the rocks or the fact the waves were starting to get the bottom of her jeans wet. Roll was just about to say something when GrimMoody spoke first.

"You know what the worst thing Wily ever did was?"

Roll startled. "Uh...no?"

"He never stopped Dr. Light." The author mused, deep in her own thoughts. "One of Light's failings is his extreme naiivety. He's grown some over the years, just like all other people, but he never understood people the way Wily did. Wily's a much more wordly person, and he knew peoples' faults better than Light."

"Everybody's but his own." Roll scoffed, folding her arms and glaring at the back of GrimMoody's head. "He never trusted anyone."

"Exactly." GrimMoody nodded. "He's the balance of Dr. Light. Dr. Light learned, towards the end of his life, that he needed to be careful who to trust. He would have learned this a lot sooner and a lot better if Wily had been with him. Even then, he never knew that the things he created could damage the world so much. He never understood what a world of reploids could do to a world of humans. Only someone smart as him, like Wily, would ever be able to convince him that he went too far.

"I know the darkness of your thoughts when you were in the future, Roll. You knew that by creating X, Dr. Light created the technology that would end up becoming Zero. And since all the reploids are based off of X, they became capable of getting the Maverick Virus. Thus, without X, none of the Maverick Wars would have happened. Wily could have been there. He could have told Dr. Light that the world wasn't ready for someone like X, and that they needed to create better CPU security if they wanted to build him. But Wily took advantage of Light's unawareness instead."

"If you say I need to destroy Mega Man X." Roll said slowly, shivering. "I'll never forgive you."

"Relax, I'm not going to say that." GrimMoody turned away from the ocean, smiling a bit more pleasantly. "The thing that should help you is two things: one, when X is activated, the future Dr. Cain isn't alive yet. Two, since robots exist, there will be no need for Cain to build reploids, and he will never get the chance to look at X's innards and create them. He'll have robots of his own, but they won't be like before. Not as good. And three, you have your Wily analogue: Bass. Bass doesn't want to admit it, but he is like Dr. Wily. That, however, is a good thing. He'll know when to tell Mega Man to stop, and Mega Man will listen. They'll be what Light and Wily should have been."

"Except Bass isn't going to be a scientist." Roll said. "Well, I don't think he ever would. Will he?"

"Nah. He wouldn't do that unless he had a really strong reason to."

There was a pause, and Roll nervously rubbed the back of her neck. One thing still bothered her, and she felt a little reluctant to ask it, fearing that it would somehow change all the good that had happened.

"GrimMoody..." Roll hesitated, then gripped the side of her dress tightly, hoping she had the strength to continue. "The last time we met, you said you could only help me 'in a sense'. You said the Maverick Wars were still going to happen, and that there's nothing you could write would erase it. What does that mean?"

The little smile on the author's face waned, and she knawed on her bottom lip before answering. "Well...there's much about your situation that I can't explain. I'll try to though...it's sort of like this. You're not the only Roll. I told you then that while you are Dr. K's creation, there are many authors out there. And for every author, there is a different Roll. These Rolls do various things according to the whims of their authors. All of those Rolls are trumped by Dr. K's Roll, and she lives in his universe. His universe is not mine, and while I can write things based on it, his universe still comes first when it comes to his characters. That means that his Roll is his, and she will forever be trapped in the future that he planned for her. She's the real Roll, and I can do nothing to save her. You, like all the others, are a copy."

Roll gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. But alas, the author only nodded. "Oh yes. I tried to keep you as much as possible to the original, but because this is my universe, you are my copy, just as the other authors have their own copy. We take these characters and put them in circumstances we specify for our own purposes."

"But..." Roll lowered her hands only an inch or so, enough so that she could nervously speak. "What's the point? What good does it do to copy me, or anyone else like that?"

"Good?" GrimMoody puzzled over this a moment. "Huh. I don't suppose it's to anybody's good but my own, now that I think about it. I was always bothered by what Dr. K did to all of you. How he tortured you and forced you to inevitably drift to a crappy future. I mean, in some ways it was interesting, but it was...well...'unrealistic' because it never gave you the chance to let your own actions cause the future. Sadly, he's not the only author that did that kind of thing to his universe. I can't change the future for everyone, and in fact I can't even change the future for real in anybody's universe but the one I live in, and thankfully my Author's not Dr. K. I get to choose what I do with what I've been given. I wanted you to have that same choice. For my own happiness, I made you. I want you to be that one Roll, if the only one, that actually gets the chance to live happily ever after."

"I...I suppose I should thank you, then." Roll tried to smile, and her hands fell to her side. "But Moody...there's something else. It hasn't gone away. I've felt this way ever since Dr. Light died, and that hasn't changed between the timelines. I just...I feel so useless."

The girl-bot paused as if expecting the author to interrupt her. But the dark blonde didn't say a word. She patiently waited for Roll to continue, even though from the way her eyes shone Roll was completely certain the author already knew what she was about to ask.

"What's my goal in life?" Roll suddenly blurted. "I've been taking care of Dr. Light for so long that I don't even know! What can I do with myself now that I can't do that anymore?"

"Have you tried being a barista?"

"Moody! I'm serious!"

"Sorry, chiquita." Grimm smiled, a wide smile that reminded Roll too much of Harry Briggs. "That's something you're going to have to figure out for yourself. This is your world now, Roll, and that means you've got to learn to start calling some shots. But, eh, why don't you ask your brother? Maybe he can help you out. After all, he knows you pretty well."

"Aw, you can't tell me?"

"Heh, such is life. Everybody's got figure it out for themselves." Moody shrugged. "Crap, I don't have my own future figured out."

"I guess I understand..." Roll sighed, blowing a bit of hair out of her mouth. She wished the wind wouldn't blow so hard. "I just wish I didn't feel so sad about it all the time."

"Like I said, ask your brother. Now is that all you want to ask? I need to go get ready for work pretty soon."

"Just one more thing." Roll swallowed hard. "It's just so much to take in. But please, GrimMoody, will I always remember the awful timeline with the Maverick Virus?"

"Sure, unless you delete the memories."

"Should...should I delete them?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't." GrimMoody smiled. "I mean, you're very lucky to have learned lessons from the future. Also, you had a friend there in that timeline, one you haven't seen so far in this. You probably haven't even thought of him yet."

Roll's eyes practically flew open, and she gasped. She knew exactly who the author was talking about. "Of course! I remember now! I need to go see him right away! I hope he's alright over there! Oh...um, please GrimMoody, you could, since you're here, use your author powers to get me over there..."

"Bah! Haven't you been listening?" GrimMoody snorted. "It would be tasteless of me to just do everything for you. You can find a plane, or maybe Crystal Bot's teleporters, or something. Don't be so dang lazy."

"There was always the hope you might," Roll giggled. "But fine, be that way."

"You bet I will. Well, I guess I'll let you get to it, then." GrimMoody peered at her wrist, then facepalmed. "Oops, I forgot. I don't have a watch. I need to get one. Anyway, it's about time that I go. Why don't you head on home and talk to your brother, like I said? Always remember: whatever is good in life, think on those things and dwell on them. That way you'll be sure to do good things to those around you."

"I will! But Moody, will I see you again after this?"

"No, probably not." the author said. "Oh wait, yes, you'll see me one more time. You won't remember it afterwards, but don't worry. You won't have to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roll asked, dread beginning to rise up in her. "Is something really bad going to happen again?"

"Yes. But don't worry. It's just normal bad stuff, not engineered doom. Bye now, Roll-chan!"

GrimMoody waved at her copy of Roll, and as the robot girl watched she could have sworn that the author was beginning to fade away. As she focused her eyes to get a clearer sense of what was going on - which only made everything foggier - she suddenly realized that GrimMoody was completely gone. There was no trace of the author, not so much as a footprint left where she had been standing. Only a small whiff of..._something_ in the air that Roll could barely detect with her scent technology. That, however, was quickly blown away, leaving Roll with nothing more to smell but the salt air. Roll took a deep breath of it anyway.

_I love the ocean. It reminds me of that one last time I was with Dr. Light. That was forever ago, wasn't it?_

As much as Roll wanted to keep watching the waves and just enjoy the environment, this beach wasn't as clean as the one she and Dr. Light had gone to in Florida. Here there were far too many rocks and the water was darker. It was too hard to draw in the memories of her creator, at least with her eyes open. And even that small draught of reminiscing...well, it made Roll feel sad. Dr. Light was gone, and even when he came back in three decades, it just wouldn't be quite the same.

The girl-bot teleported. Instantly the sea air was gone and her nose detected the familiar cleanliness that was home. Roll found herself in the "library", there amongst Dr. Light's old documents now finally organized on each side of the room. Roll went over to the desk, peeking behind it. No, Bass wasn't there. She sighed with relief. Bass often hung out in this room when he was staying with the Lights, and she didn't want to bother him. Then, suddenly, Roll didn't feel so relieved. She clutched her arm tightly. Where was he, anyway? Where was anybody? Roll shuddered, caught up in a sudden lonliness.

_I...I wonder if Rock is in the lab..._

Roll quickly scuttled along the halls, dodging past the empty doorways and halls. She cursed her home for being so big...not very many people lived in it! Why did it have to be that size? The girl-bot shuffled forward with her head focused down. She wanted to get to the main lab as quickly as possible, and some rude person had taken the liberty of extending the path there, it seemed. Roll quickly passed through the main double doors.

_**Clang!**_

"Oof!"

Before Roll realized it, she was sitting on the ground, rubbing her head. Right across from her sat Rock, also right on the floor. He looked a little stunned, but by no means upset. He just picked himself back up, then reached down a hand for his shaky sister.

"Are you okay, Roll?" Mega Man asked. "You ran right into me there. Is everything alright?"

"Oops! Clumsy me!" the housekeeper-bot gave a little fake titter, quickly accepting his hand and getting to her feet. "Um...I just wasn't looking where I was going. I don't mean to be a bother...it's just...just..." Before Roll could come up with some sort of decent excuse, she found herself crying. "I miss Dr. Light! I miss him so much! I don't know how to go on without him! It's just not fair...all I want to do is find something to do with myself, but nothing makes me happy anymore!"

Roll turned to her brother, pitiful and contrite. She didn't like what she saw; Mega Man had that tired, strained sort of look on his face, the one he'd been using a lot ever since she'd come back from the future. It made Roll feel very small, and so she stepped away from her brother.

"Oh...um...I''m sorry, Rock." she said. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

"Well, it's not so bad this time." Mega Man rubbed his hand through his hair, making Roll wince. He always did that when he was trying to hide how stressed he felt. "At least now I have a lot less on my plate. I'm starting to wonder if this is a serious emotional glitch, though. Auto's been checking on you, though, hasn't he?"

"Yes." Roll nodded, wiping at her eye as if there was a tear there. "But it just doesn't seem to help. The problem can't just be a glitch...it's just that I've felt so useless since I can't take care of Dr. Light anymore."

"Hm...that's understandible." Mega Man sighed. "You're probably right, but I'm going to check your mind once more just to make myself happy. I've been out fighting crime so long I've been neglecting my own sister..."

"It isn't your fault I feel this way, Rock."

"I know." Mega Man took his sister's hand and led her to the main computer. "But it's still my job to look out for you."

Roll let her brother pull her to the front wall, where he sat her at the rolling chair in front of the main console. Mega Man didn't activate the large monitor, but instead a smaller monitor just above the long keyboard. With a little green wire, he soon had Roll hooked up into the main computer and tapped away at the keyboard at his graceful 157 words per minute. Roll smiled. Her brother had always been so proud of his typing speed. He even had enough focus to talk to his sis as his fingers rattled away.

"How long have you been wondering about this, Roll?" Mega Man asked. "You knew you were going to have to get a new job sometime."

"I know. I've been thinking about it for a few years, actually." Though uncomfortable, Roll tried not to tug at the wire. "When I think of a job that seems right for me, it just doesn't seem appealing at all. Nothing feels fufilling anymore. Well, besides cleaning the lab, but even I get tired of that."

"Why wouldn't your talents be fufilling?" Mega Man let his eyes slip from the screen to give his sister an encouraging smile. "There's just so much you're good at! You could be a nurse or a pet shop owner - now that would be cute! Or maybe you could set up a pet grooming shop, open a fashion designer gallery, maybe sell ice cream at the beach..."

Mega Man paused. He stared at the screen, frozen. And then he facepalmed and groaned. Chuckling to himself, he quickly shook his head and turned to Roll. Embarrasment was all over his sheepish face.

"This is not funny and funny at the same time. It's so simple!" Rock let out an exhasperated sigh. "Oh Roll, I am so sorry I didn't fix this before. I should have realized this would be the source of the problem."

Mega Man pointed to the computer screen, and Roll turned the chair to get a better angle on the monitor. When she saw it, she almost wanted to laugh as well. It really was a very simple problem. The computer had Roll's directives and sub-directives listed on the screen, and as Roll read down the list, one item made everything clear. It read - "Roll Directive B-1: to care for the health needs of Dr. Thomas Light".

"Oh! I can't believe I didn't think to check and see if that was the problem." Roll wanted to blush. "I guess Auto must have missed it. I was having so much emotional trouble he's probably thought the problem was somewhere in my emotional matrix."

"So did I." Mega Man chortled, tapping some keys at the computer. "It's just lucky I thought to check your directives. There. I've deleted it. Since it's only a subdirective, I don't have to replace it with another purpose. I think I'd prefer you getting to choose what you want to do."

As her brother saved the changes, Roll began to feel better. Quite a lot better, in fact. The burden within her withered away, and though it was annoying for her head to blink out for a moment, the changes were finalized, and it was quickly over. Roll drew in a deep breath, feeling at once twenty pounds lighter. She beamed at her brother, making sure he instantly knew that she was better.

"Y'know, I think I like you better as a lab-bot." Roll still beamed. "I can't believe how much better I feel."

"I'm just glad it's over with. I can't imagine how it must feel to have a purpose you can't possibly live up to." Mega Man shuddered, but soon the moment passed and his cheer returned. "Alright, Roll. I've got some free time. What's the first thing you want to do as a free robot?"

"Now that's a question I know the answer to!" Roll immediately stood from her chair, plucking out the green wire. "I want to go to Australia!"

"Australia?"

She nodded. "Australia."

-t-

Roll wasn't so sure she liked this place. She never had been that fond of deserts, and even though she knew the dirt and sand beneath her was perfectly stable, she couldn't help but think of the sinking sands her brother had faced those years ago when he fought Pharoah Man. And Commando Man, for that matter. But it wasn't Austrailia's rainy season (it was actually the beginning of winter), and given that there were plenty of rocks and some scattered grass trying to grow, there was no apparent danger of instability.

But there was danger. Plenty of it. None from the sun, despite Roll's new Aussie hat she wore, and wore proudly (she made a mental note to buy more Australian clothes once she got back to Sydney). No, the real danger was the cause of those swirl markings in the desert floor. The sand had a few "S" shaped marks in it, and even though Roll's eye was better at finding carpet stains, she knew it was a trail. But what kind of trail? Roll lifted the brim of her hat and leaned down for a closer inspection of the rocks closest to the marks.

"Aha!" she lifted a finger toward some white scratches against two half buried rocks. "A real snake couldn't do that to a rock. Its scales aren't hard enough. A robot snake could, though. Yes! I'm definitely getting closer!"

Roll merrily straightened, making sure to keep her eyes open on the landscape around her. Snake Man was one of the mosre stealthy Wily-bots, and just because Roll was in a flat, open area with nothing more than a few boulders and a low hill in the distance didn't mean that Snake Man couldn't very well sneak up on her. Confident enough that she was alone, Roll diverted some of her attention to the markings in the sand and rocks again. She just barely could make out something like a path, like the trail of one of Snake Man's mechaniloids. Or was it something else altogether?

"It looks like a snake path." Roll shrugged. "Well, only one way to find out!"

There wasn't much of the trail, however. Roll followed it, only to find out that it disappeared altogether after a few feet. That there was of the trail did seem to point to a couple of boulders up ahead. The robot figured that could be a good place to look. While one of the boulders, the bigger one, lay on its side, the other one did seem large enough to hide a robot master. If the robot master ducked, anyway. Roll peered once more at the tracks below her feet, hoping that maybe she'd catch something she might have missed.

"Thats funny." Roll scratched her chin. "Bits of this dirt look sort of like it hasn't had time to dry in the sun...someone must have left these tracks recently."

Roll couldn't help a giggle. Normally she wasn't meant for noticing such things, but here she was putting her time as "Proto Bot" to good use. She started to like having all of her secret memories.

"Yeah, that was one of my snakes." a bored voice hissed from behind. "They're really handy for throwing _idiotssss _off my trail."

Roll swallowed hard, trying not to scream as she truned around. Even despite herself, she still smiled at the sight of Snake Man. She guessed it wasn't all that good of one - the smile just made Snake Man's face grow more irritated than it already was. Or maybe that was just the Team 3 robot's bad mood.

"Um, well..." Roll said quickly. "I guess I'm smart then, because I tracked you, and here you are!"

"Don't flatter yourssself." Snake Man retorted. "Hsssssht! I saw you coming. The only reason you're alive right now is because I'm curious why Mega Man's little sister is dumb enough to actually try and find me."

Before Roll could answer, Snake Man shoved her aside and headed for the boulders. Astonished, Roll sputtered and ran to catch up with him and his long strides.

"You don't seem too interested if you're so curious why I'm here."

"I've got a lot on my plate, Roll." Snake Man glared at her. "_Corallus caninus_, girl! The world doesn't center around Light robots you know. Ugh, and it's a good thing I don't have to put up with you when I'm trying to shake the authorities. Can you make those footprints any more obvious?"

Roll looked back, and sure enough, her footprints were at least twice as deep as Snake Man's in the sand behind them. With a pout, Roll began remembering why it wasn't so easy to get along with the reptile-bot. Still, she wouldn't be swayed. She was here on a "mission", and she had every intention to complete it.

By this time Snake Man had already deftly climbed over the second boulder - even though going around it would have been easier. Roll just shrugged and took the easier way around, arriving in time to see Snake Man tugging at a burlap cloth. He pulled the cloth away, not noticing it hit Roll's legs and flop at her feet. Roll didn't notice much either. There on the ground lay most of Fire Man: his head and torso (thankfully connected) and a detached leg. Snake Man threw something else, but this time purposely at Roll. It slipped out of her fingers and hit the burlap before she realized it was a screwdriver.

"Well, Light-bot, here you go." Snake Man gestured at the casualty. "Fix him. I've got a lost baby numbat at my hideout and those heat packs I stole aren't going to last all winter."

"...Numbat?"

Snake Man rolled his eyes. "Banded anteater. Endangered animal. Now get to work."

Roll picked the screwdriver up from the ground, and Snake Man backed away from the boulder. Roll stuck out a bit of her tongue and tried to assess Fire Man's damage. Besides being covered in dirt and scratches, poor Fire Man suffered a missing eye and a jagged break in his cheek. The way black marks streaked down his right side, Roll guessed he had an internal oil leak. His chestplate came off with little protest, and the inner workings...well, Roll wasn't sure what they were supposed to look like in good repair. Though it was a reasonable estimation that healthy robots didn't have little grey bursts of carbon scoring on the inside.

"Um...sorry, Snake Man." Roll got back to her feet and brushed away the dirt on her knees. "You've got the wrong Light-bot. I don't really know very much about repair work. The only thing I can really tell is that you're probably going to have to replace a lot of parts."

"Hssssshh..." Snake Man bared a fang. "You're not doing a good job convincing me to let you live, Roll..."

"Oh pssht." Roll flipped a casual hand at him. "You're not going to kill me. You know the only thing that would do is cause my brother to come look for me, discover your hideout, and ruin everything you've worked for. But if it's convincing you want, I can do that."

Snake Man folded his arms. "Oh yeah? I'm waiting."

"Well. as it turns out, I have a deal for you." Roll patiently walked up to Snake Man and handed him his screwdriver. "I've been doing some reading about you, and how you've been going after the crocodile poachers. The Australian government even knows you're here, but they don't really want to go after you because you've been so helpful. Still, they don't trust you. You've been stealing, haven't you? It would be a lot easier to get them to leave you alone or maybe even give you some funding if you had the backing of Light Laboratories. Besides, how long have you been separated from Wily? You're going to need a repair and even an upgrade, pretty soon. All you need to do is say the word, and I can get my brother to not only have you repaired, but get the REA to let you legally do what you do best!"

"So what's the catch?" Snake Man lifted an eyebrow, still distrustful of the girl-bot. "Why are you offering this to me?"

_Because when I was all alone at the end of the world you were there to help me._

Roll smiled a little sheepishly. There were some things she just couldn't say, and her secrets were going to have to remain her own. She looked into Snake Man's eyes, and for once she thought the Team 3 robot might have softened a little.

"Oh, you know how us Light-bots are." Roll shrugged. "We're always putting our noses into other people's business because we think we're needed. We don't like seeing good robots go to waste."

"Whatever." Snake Man pushed his way past Roll and headed for Fire Man. "No deal. I don't need the help of any Light-bot, and I don't need the government's approval. I'm out here doing what nobody else bothers to do, so they can kiss my titanium tail. Now go away. You're starting to annoy me."

With that, Snake Man occupied himself with Fire Man's repairs. Roll had to wonder exactly how well the Team 1 robot could control his fire. The little baby Numbat would need to be warm, not on fire. Roll felt a little sorry for Fire Man, but she still felt more so for the snake-bot.

"Snake Man..." she said. "I really mean it. I do want to help you. If you ever change your mind, you just call the lab, okay?"

No answer. Snake Man just went on, banging his tools a little louder to make sure Roll knew she was unwelcome. The girl-bot simply shrugged and started to walk away, looking back a couple of times in case to see if he would watch her go. No such luck. There was nothing for Roll to do but go.

_Whew! That wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. _Roll so much wanted to giggle aloud._ I wasn't afraid at all! I'm starting to get braver! Yay! Oh, it's only been two hours. Good, that means I have one hour to get back to Sydney and shop, and Rock will never know I left at all! I wish I could tell him..._

As Roll set the teleport coordinates for the Australian capital, she glanced once more at Snake Man. She started to feel good. Even if Snake Man never took her offer, she had done the right thing to try. At that precise moment, Roll knew what she wanted to do with herself. She wanted to get more involved with the official business of Light Labs. She still planned on doing housework, but she wasn't going to hide behind it any longer. Roll began thinking of all the things she could do to help her brother as she teleported away.

_Let's see...I can take in lost robots, fill out the legal paperwork for the lab, file those patents for Auto, host a science convention in Monstropolis..._

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Okay, y'all, I'm really sorry about this entry being late. I have no one to blame for it but myself. For one thing, I ran out of buffer. For another, I got an attack of the lazies. Thirdly, I had to help out at a florist's shop for Valentine's Day. I hope you can imagine what sorts of dramatic whatnots might happen there on V-day. In any case, here you go. This is the entire reason why I wrote this story in the first place: it's a self-serving tale of me making the story do what I want. I get the urge to do that to many stories I read, particularly ones where I hate the ending. Hey, no judging! You know you do it too. ;)

- Dang, now I'm thinking about it, I really want Roll to have a pet shop! She'd be so good at that. Imagine her selling a puppy. Oh hey, could you guys do some reviews mentioning Roll? If you do, it just might appear on Bonus Features!

- _Corallus caninus_ is the latin name for emerald tree boas, and Snake Man, like I've said before, likes to use latin for his exclamations. Lol, Snake Man. You live in the Mega Man world. Of course it centers around the Lights. Silly snakey.

- Even though it's late May during the story, it's still winter for the Aussies. Remember, seasons switch when you cross the equator.

How about some character profiles? Hm...I don't exactly have anyone here I haven't done a profile for earlier, so I'll go for some minor characters.

Admiral Tim "Tin Man" Hathers

**"Everyone in position!"**

Good point: Fair

Bad point: Stern

Likes: A beautiful ship

Dislikes: Bad attitudes

This guy is Splash Woman's boss, and he earned the nickname "Tin Man" because, as his lower ranking navy men lament, "if he only had a heart". To be fair, Hathers isn't a mean guy. He just likes things done, and done right. He never punishes anyone that doesn't deserve it. To good seamen he's like a passing cloud - high up there and not reckoning too much in the daily work. For the people who are disorganized or rebellious, he's a thunderstorm, and is not at all afraid of disciplining those he commands.

Splash Woman is definitely one of the people Hathers trusts most, as she cares about her job very much and is always willing to listen to authority. As a result, Splash Woman is generally allowed to do as she pleases because she always gets the job done. Every so often Hathers has to pass down some new, stupid law that the government passes to regulate shipping, but they generally complain about those things together.

Hathers has a wife and three teenage daughters, which perhaps explains why he isn't home too often. Except to aggravate his daughters' potential boyfriends, of course, which he does very well.

Renold Davis

**"Be sure and pay attention."**

Good point: Calm

Bad point: Unfriendly

Likes: Udon noodles

Dislikes: Mexican food

You probably don't remember Renold. He only appeared once in How Many during one of Proto Man's flashbacks. He, along with Harry Briggs, is one of the two government officials who worked with Dr. Light when Proto Man was first created. Renold was one of the first members of the Robot Ethics Agency, and is responsible for a lot of the regulations that now exist on the books. He's an austere guy, and some of the things people say about Admiral Hathers more rightfully apply to Renold.

Renold isn't one for socializing much. He prefers to be around people only when they are a part of a specific job that has to be done. Surprisingly, while working with Briggs annoyed him, they got along moderately well. Renold figured out that it was best to let Briggs handle a lot of the talking parts of their job, which both kept Briggs able to talk to social people and gave Renold more time to handle the paperwork without having to put up with conversation. For his part, Briggs often joked about his partner - it was a good way to disguise the fact he disliked his fellow agent.

Davis always fancied himself something of a food critic, and he amused himself by publishing little food articles in the corner of the intra-agency paper. He excused himself to his superiors by saying that future agents would want to know good places to eat when they traveled. Surprisingly, these articles were very cleverly written, and gained Davis more friends than actual face-to-face interactions did. Though Renold was always sort of a grumpy dude, his fellow agents generally considered him so much a part of the REA that they couldn't imagine the organization without him: he was sort of like a in-joke mascot. They rarely joked about it to his face, though.

Renold was much less popular in the Light household. Prior to the invention of Proto Man, the REA was a minor agency concerned only with people comitting crimes with robots - mechaniloids did exist at that point. However, Blues changed that, and so Davis and Briggs were assigned to observe the first sentient robot. Dr. Light at first welcomed them, as he always intended Blues to protect the earth. However, soon enough his opinion of the agents changed. Davis especially was irritating, and he constantly put pressure on Dr. Light to work faster and put extra failsafes on Proto Man so that nothing would "go wrong". As much as Dr. Light tried to explain to Davis that the entire point of sentient robots was to make them able to choose between good and bad, Davis wouldn't hear any of it. Davis frequently sent reports to his superiors that he was afraid Dr. Light was out of his mind, and only sometimes was Briggs able to intercept some of these reports.

The agent was especially harsh to Proto Man, and usually told Dr. Light to make Proto Man do something rather than speak to Proto Man himself. It didn't help that Proto Man was mildly rebellious and refused to take orders from anyone but Dr. Light. Davis once took Proto Man aside and "explained" to him that if he didn't shape up, Davis would make sure that he got scrapped. Dr. Light only found out about this weeks later, after Proto Man had run away. They got into a huge argument over it, which ended with new assistant Dr. Wily throwing Davis out of the lab. As a result, it was years before Davis finally started to believe that the Wily wars weren't just scientistic rivalry gone awry.

As of Okkusenman, Davis has been dead for six years from natural causes plus his bout of bronchitis. He's survived by his wife and two sons. Proto Man has been known to check on them from time to time to make sure they don't turn out like their father.


	30. Bass' Ending

Bass still sat. He'd been sitting on the edge of that cliff for hours now. True, it wasn't much of a cliff. The drop where his legs hung over was sheer, but only went down about thirty feet. Nothing for a robot. That word was a pretty apt description of the entire scene, actually: nothing. Or nothing much. The place was barren. Not much but sand and more sand about as far as the unzoomed eye could see. Of course, the ghost town directly before him provided a little scenery down below. The old shacks with their crumpling roofs and long since broken windows were at least more interesting than the open expanse of dirt.

Or at least Bass seemed to think so. He'd been staring at it aimlessly for hours. The way was partly blocked by another building, but Bass could make out about half of the local, dead bar. The bell hanging in the steeple of the church hadn't rung for a hundred years, and it looked it. The name of the little would-be town was painted on a little sign, and this sign was still nailed to what was left of a fence. However, years of blowing sands and beating sun made it too faded to see from this distance. Bass didn't bother engaging his zoom feature.

Bass didn't bother doing much of anything. He sat there, staring intently at the town but not seeing it at all. He silently leaned back, resting his hands on the dirt behind him. His left hand accidently tapped against a small metal urn. Without thinking, he quickly set the thing back. Bass sighed. There was no point. The urn was empty. Not sure what to do with it, the dark robot picked it up, examining it as if he hadn't seen it before. It was a simple metal thing, stainless steel. It was more or less in the general vase shape, with a mere round cap to cover the top.

He shrugged. He didn't have any more use for the thing. Bringing it forward past the edge of the cliff, Bass dropped it down below. There under Bass was the open shaft of the town's old mine, big and gaping. The urn landed beside the rail tracks leading into the shaft, and finding itself on a slight incline, slowly rolled away into the mine, only pausing once as its metal top banged against a piece of the wooden barrier that hadn't already come off. The urn spun once, but then continued its journey into the darkness before it. Bass never saw the urn again.

That was how Mega Man found him. His blue teleport beam landed only a few feet behind the dark robot, and though Bass didn't turn around, Rock still hesitated. This was Bass' quiet area, so he'd been told. The dark robot always came here to think, and though Mega Man had known this for several years, he had never dared to actually come here. True, many robots had been here earlier, but even then Mega Man hoped Bass would come back to the lab.

_Still, Bass must have heard my teleport. _Mega Man figured. _If he's not telling me to go away, he must be fine with it._

That seemed to be the case. Bass said nothing as Mega Man went around to his left and sat himself down on the cliff's edge as well. Bass acknowledged Mega Man with a casual look, but said nothing. Mega Man too was quiet. The desert sands was made conversation seem as desolate as the scenery around them. Finally though, Bass spoke. It was just getting too awkward.

"So, you're back."

"Yep."

"Eh. How's Australia?"

"Pretty nice." Mega Man answered, leaning back a little. "We get there, and of course all Roll wants to do is shop. I managed to get her to stop doing that long enough to do some touring. We saw an opera...went hiking...stuff like that." Mega Man glanced at the dark robot, knowing Bass probably wouldn't care about that kind of thing. That wasn't what Rock came to say, in any case. "I know you didn't want me around for the funeral."

"Yeah," Bass grew quiet, caught up in a small bog of melancholy. He heaved a hefty sigh. "But you wouldn't want to come anyway. It wasn't even a real funeral. Team 5 showed up, and some of the Wily-bots Auto fixed already. It was pretty awkward. Wood Man tried to say a few words, but how the hell do you say something nice about a guy nobody likes, even when he's dead? Besides 'it's so nice he's dead', I mean."

"I guess there's no way you could have had a normal funeral for someone like Wily." Mega Man said. "Is that why you had him cremated?"

"Not really. Sort of, I guess. I didn't know what else to do with him. I could've put him in the robot museum or somewhere, but...it didn't seem right." Bass stared out into the expanse of sand. "I like it better this way. He's gone for good. I don't have to think about him anymore. I don't know...it just seems right. Here, this stupid little ghost town is. People came here two hundred years ago because they thought there was gold in this mine." Bass kicked the side of the cliff for emphasis. "But there was none. It was just a scam. Like Wily; you think he's smart or great or whatever, but...he's not really."

From the way Bass seemed to soften as he said this, Mega Man wondered if Bass was, if just a teeny tiny little bit, sad. Was that regret in his eyes as he watched the sands? Was Bass wondering if he'd made the the right decision? Rock could only guess. He tried not to stare too much. Still, whether Bass regretted it or not, what was done was done. The dark robot simply kept staring to the east.

_That's where the ashes must have fallen._ Rock thought. _I guess he really did want Wily to be gone. I can guess why..._

It was strange to think that was all that was left of his greatest enemy. Nothing more than a few ashes somewhere out in all that sand. A sadness, unbidden, welled up inside him. Wily truly was gone, and perhaps only a week or two the wind would blow away all evidence of the man. As much as Wily had tried to be immortal, he was gone. Mega Man wasn't sure why this idea made him so sad. A little wish suddenly popped up in his heart.

"I almost wish I had been at the funeral." Mega Man said, softening his wish a little to not offend Bass. "I never really had any closure with Dr. Wily."

"Closure? Since when does anybody get that with Wily? Just believe me when I say it was awkward. It was just a bunch of the Wily-bots there, and none of us knew what we were doing. Heh, Crystal Bot tried her hardest not to cry." Bass let the faintest whiff of a smile decorate his face. "She thought I would be mad at her if she cried."

"Would you?"

"Eh, I'd get over it." Bass' smile grew. "Ha, it got a lot easier for her when Burner Man let loose the waterworks. Rock, you've never seen anything as hilarious as that. It was so hard not to laugh. Gyro Man actually did, and Wave Man had to smack him to get him to shut up."

Mega Man winced. "I thought I told Auto not to repair Burner Man."

"Eh, yeah. I hated fighting that guy." Surprisingly, Bass also winced a little, laughing a bit. "But no, Dr. Imahara actually _wanted_ Burner Man to live. He said he actually liked the guy."

"What?" Mega Man scoffed. "So says the person who never had to fight him!"

"Hey, he's your cousin or whatever." Bass smirked. "Don't complain to me about it. Besides, you promised he could live."

"I know." Mega Man rubbed his head. "I didn't think he would take the deal! But that's what I get for assuming. Oh well, no robot should really go to waste. The REA isn't going to let Burner Man get into too much trouble...I hope."

"Who knows? Hell, Wily must have been smoking something strong when he built that guy." Bass stretched his arms. "Eh, you'll just kill the guy when he goes crazy, like you always do."

"I'm not so sure about that."

That got Bass' attention. He turned to Mega Man with a confused glance. The bomber couldn't help but smile at him.

"I'm a lab-bot, Bass. I can't fight forever." It was Rock's turn to stare out into the distance. "I was always meant to be a scientist."

"So? What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I'm tired of this. I'm tired of always being gone from the lab and not knowing what's going on with my sister. I'm tired of Auto doing all the work and I fill out a few papers when I find the time. I wasn't built to be a fighter-bot. But you were."

Mega Man peeked over at Bass, but soon turned his head completely. He just had to see this. Bass sat there on that cliff, completely frozen with his face as hard as a statue. And his doubful eyes froze also, on the cusp of either hoping for something he never dared believe in or getting really angry.

"..._What_?"

"I want you to replace me, Bass. I'm done. I want to spend my time in the lab again, and have a legacy in something other than fighting. Besides...I'm beginning to think you're stronger than me."

The dark robot's eyes grew so large that Mega Man feared that they would pop out of his head. A question lingered in Bass' eyes, but he was too caught up in his zombie-like stupor to say very much. Mega Man chuckled. He understood.

"Don't look at me like that. You know you are. Especially now that Crystal Bot got a look at Zero's schematics. She's probably got half a dozen upgrades ready for you by now. Auto's a good, hard worker, but he's better at building things that construct rather than destroy." Mega Man breathed out a puff of air. It sure looked like Bass was listening. "So, I want you to take my place and protect the world. It's a lot of pressure, but I believe in you."

Bass blinked a few times, and for a moment remained silent. After a minute of contemplating and trying to form sentences, Bass finally settled an uncertain expression at Mega Man. He shook his head.

"No way." Bass sighed. "I can't. There's no way in the world I'm going to sit here in Monstropolis and get cats out of trees for the cops the way you do."

"I got to see a lot of places." Mega Man said. "Though I guess I did stay here a lot of the time. But you won't have to worry about that. The main reason I had to stick by Monstropolis is that Dr. Light lived here, and Dr. Wily hated him so much. All of Wily's schemes involved Monstropolis in one way or another. Then of course Dr. Cain had to come here, because Monstropolis was the capital of robotics. But those doctors are all gone now. Japan is getting really competitive when it comes to robots, and other countries are getting better as well. So there's no reason you'd have to stay here. You can go where you want."

Just as it seemed Bass was about to agree, he paused. "Rock, you know I'm still on probation, right?"

"Yeah, but the change isn't going to happen right away. I have to get people used to the idea of me retiring. Besides, I've already spoken to the REA. Most of the officials I spoke to like the idea, and they're going to chage your probation into more of a trial period. But that's only if you want to, of course. You can take some time to think about it. I won't be announcing the change for a few weeks, at least." 

"Even if I say yes now?"

That gave Mega Man pause, but in the end a bright smile grew on his face. "Well, yes. I want to give it some time. At least until more of Monstropolis is rebuilt, so that no one will think I'm abandoning them right when they need me. People can be pretty sensitive sometimes."

"I guess I should think about it some...oh hell, who am I kidding? Of course I want to. I hope this means the REA is going to cut me some slack on all that paperwork and crap I have to do to go to different countries. I want to do some exploring before my five years is up."

Bass grinned at Mega Man for a moment, but stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing. He immediately frowned and turned away, directing his glare at the empty little town down below.

"You know, Rock...this doesn't mean anything." he muttered. "We're not friends, or anything like that."

With the dark robot looking away, Mega Man didn't bother hiding his merriness. With a narrow, mischevious little smile, he made his answer.

"Of course not." he said. "We're brothers."

Bass' horrified expression was sour enough to curdle a dairy farm, but Mega Man just laughed.

"Oh, come on, Bass, you know how Dr. Light always saw you. He always saw the best in you. It was like you weren't a Wily-bot anymore because Dr. Light pretty much adopted you. And that makes you my brother."

Sheepishily Bass remembered, and his eyes softened as he thought of those last weeks with the doctor. Dr. Light had been so kind to him, even when he was the doctor's enemy and Light had no reason to be. Dr. Light had in fact called him a son directly, and thinking about it, Bass wondered what Dr. Light had said on the subject to his own creation. Bass glanced at Rock, who was focused on the ghost town out of politeness - but still with that mischevious smile, darn him.

"Oh crap," Bass facepalmed, laughing despite himself. "I just knew there was a downside to this!"

Mega Man's grin got bigger. "And this means Proto Man is also your brother."

Still laughing, Bass swore, and his nasty word echoed on the cliffside. "Argh! Roll I can handle, but _Proto Man_? Oh crap...you know, Rock, Proto Man is weird as hell. When I was about to take Wily's body to be cremated, he stopped me to look at the body. Like he wanted to make sure Wily really is dead or something."

Mega Man shuddered. "Ugh...that is weird. I can understand it, though. After what Wily did to him, I imagine he'd want to make sure."

"I guess. Heh, I wouldn't put it past Wily to try and trick everyone into thinking he was dead. His body was too nasty to be fake. I mean seriously, you've never seen a dead person nastier than that. His skin got all-"

"Bass, I really don't want to hear this."

"...Pastey and sort of green, but his eyes turned this nasty shade of red, because they were bleeding for some reason..."

"PLEASE stop-"

"They didn't embalm him correctly and the blood started trickling out of his nose-"

"SHUT UP!" Mega Man held his hands tightly over his audio recievers. "Stop talking, stop talking, _stop talking!_"

Bass slapped his knee. "Ahaha! You're almost as bad as Crystal Bot, you know that?"

"You're awful." A grinning Mega Man tempted fate by removing his hands from the sides of his head. "I guess I should expect that sort of behavior from my immature little brother."

"NO. Absolutely not." Bass snorted. "Call me that again and see what happens! It sounds like you want to know all about Wily's autopsy report."

"Gah!" Mega Man immediately shot his hands up again. "Shut up, little brother!"

Luckily, before the conversation could plunge to even lower depths, the two robots were interrupted. In fact, they were still laughing when another teleport beam, green and cyan, landed behind them. It was Crystal Bot, and the girl-bot shyly approached Mega Man and Bass.

"Hi, you guys." she turned to Mega Man. "Hey, Rock-kun, could you excuse us? I need to talk to Forte."

"Alright." Mega Man nodded, drawing up his legs from the cliff's edge so he could get back to his feet. "I said what I needed to say. I'll see you guys when you get back."

And so Mega Man set his teleport coordinates for the lab, trying his hardest not to call Bass his little brother in front of the technician. As funny as it would be, it just wasn't worth it. So the blue bomber teleported away, and Crystal Bot curiously turned to her boss as he also got up from the side of the cliff.

"Forte, what were you guys talking about?"

Before Crystal Bot knew what was going on, Forte snatched her up, swinging her around with a massive, boisterous cheer. The girl-bot practically squealed with laughter herself, catching his infective happiness.

"What...what's got into you?" a still giggling girl-bot said as the dark robot finally put her back on the ground.

"Sonata!" Bass merrily slapped his hands on her shoulders a little harder than necessary, but he was excited. "You are going to be the technician for the world's greatest hero, you know that?"

"What?" Crystal Bot's eyes lit up with excitement.

"It's true. Rock's retiring, and that means when my five years are up, I'm taking his place. And since Crystal Man is back in place in Team 5, you're coming with me. No, don't object. I said we're going to explore the world together when Zero is gone, and so let's go!"

The happiness drained a little out of Crystal Bot's face, and uneasy doubt replaced it instead. She sighed and stepped away from Bass' hands, letting them fall off her shoulders.

"Forte, that's what I came to talk to you about." the girl-bot said sadly. "You know I'd love to go with you, but I can't. It's my father. I can't just rebuild him and then go 'hey, I'm your daughter, I'm going to leave and travel with Forte now, see you around'. I need to spend more time with him again. He's my dad, Forte, and we haven't even really met. Besides, Team 5 is still my team, and I have to consider how they feel about it. I've barely been on the space station at all since we left Wily, and well, Dr. Cossack's already transfered his ownership of me to Mr. Briggs." With anxious eyes and a stuck out lower lip, the girl-bot continued, hoping Bass would understand. "Oh, Forte, it won't be so bad! I'll still make upgrades for you, and if you ever need to be repaired, you can just come back to the station and I'll fix you right up!"

Bass frowned, but hardly seemed as upset as his technician. He disappeared into his mind for a moment, only the moderate nodding of his head indicating any of his thoughts. Finally he emerged from them, not at all upset. He gave his technician a small smile, and she brightened a little.

"Alright, I can deal with that." Bass said. "I could use some time away from you. You're annoying."

"Hey!" Crystal Bot stuck her hands on her hips, the very picture of indignance. "That doesn't sound like someone who wants to be upgraded!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking." Bass lightly cuffed her cheek. "Anyway, I'm still not staying here much longer. I'm going to spend the rest of this stupid probation going where I can and doing what I want. And as soon as those five years are over, I'm going to come back. After that, you're coming with me. I don't care who objects. They're just going to have to deal with it. Also, get to work on a lab. Going to the Light's and then teleporting to space is too complicated. You need a place of your own to work."

"Y'know, Forte, we're totally on the same wavelength!" Crystal clapped her hands delightedly. "I was just thinking that! I've already got plans drawn up, and land picked out, and everything! I even put a library in there just for you! Oh, but it's not going to take you all those years to come back? You're not going to visit any? Maybe bring me back something nice from Korea?"

Bass guffawed. "I see how you are. Eh, maybe if you build me a nice upgrade, I'll come back occasionally."

"Is that all I'm good for?"

"Yep." Bass patted her on the head. "That's all!"

But Crystal Bot knew he was joking. She twisted up her lips in fake contempt, folding up her arms to complete the image. "You're really lucky, I'm such a nice person, Forte. Not everybody would put up with all this teasing."

"I know, I know." As he said this, Bass suddenly became serious. He smiled warmly at his technician, and his eyes said all the things he was too stubborn to say. As for his words, they said as much as Crystal Bot needed to hear. "Yeah, I know I'm really lucky to have you around."

And Crystal Bot smiled back.

-t-

Bass couldn't find her in the lab. He hadn't been back for very long, but if Rock was home from Australia, so was Roll. But where was she? She wasn't digging around in the supply closet, cleaning the lab, or organizing the storage rooms. Bass even snuck a look into Roll's room, but saw nothing more than Roll's new furniture and the flowers on the walls. Bass was quick to get out of there.

He eventually found her, surprised to see that she was in the back yard.

_Sincw when does Roll get out of the lab?_

Bass looked around, but the small vegetable garden was closer to the house, and Roll was too far off to be tending it. Bass wondered why robots would need the veggies as he approached Roll, who stood staring at every inch of the back yard, it seemed like. Bass took a quick glance around himself. The backyard was the same as it always was: stretches of grassy fields that went off past the Lights' property out to the right, where their neighbors kept some cows. To the left was the forest, also uninterrupted by civilization. Very pleasant, very Light. Roll looked back and forth at both, then up at the sky every so often. Was she looking for something?

"So how many years has it been since Rock last let you out of the house?"

Roll turned around. Seeing him, she smiled. "Oh, hi, Bass. Um, what are you talking about, him not letting me out?"

"You're staring at everything like you haven't seen the sun in ten years." Forte replied, coming alongside the girl-bot. "What are you doing out here?"

For a moment, it looked like Roll grew the slightest bit uncomfortable. But she caught herself, letting a smile smooth out any questionable expression.

"I'm just out enjoying the day. Rock doesn't keep me penned up in the house, but it still feels like I don't see the sun sometimes. I can't spend my whole life cleaning things, you know."

"I guess." Bass folded his arms, pretending for a moment that he found the sights of the backyard as interesting as Roll did. "Y'know, Roll, you really impressed me the other day."

"Really?" the curious girl-bot asked. "When was this?"

"Well, when you and Rock were in Australia, I took the liberty of watching some footage from your monitoring systems." Bass explained, taking a moment to check his fingernails. "I saw the fight between you and Zero. It didn't have any sound, for some reason, but I was still able to see you. You lasted almost twenty seconds out there against him. This might sound sarcastic, but I'm actually impressed with you. Not bad for a maid."

Roll sheepishly grinned, only embarrasment behind her smile. She rubbed the back of her neck. "Um...yes. I just couldn't stand on the side while so many robots fought against Zero and died. I must look like a complete wimp to anyone who knows how to fight, so of course he would underestimate me. I thought...maybe...that since he couldn't be intimidated by me, I could take advantage of that and destroy him."

"Dang." Bass chuckled. "That sounds almost logical. Too bad it didn't work. But what I really want to know is this. When I was watching that footage, the move you were trying to pull off on Zero looked an awful lot like a move I made up to fight against sword robots. So. How does cute, sweet little Roll know a sophisticated attack like that, hm?"

Roll gasped, sputtering as her lips moved wildly in hope for an answer. Bass patiently waited, growing only the more amused as Roll struggled for an answer. After a moment, the housekeeper-bot, nervously clinging at her hands, managed to speak.

"Um...uh...well, as it turns out." Roll squirmed. "I, um, watch videos of you."

Bass lifted an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Yeah. I...I really wanted to learn how to fight!" Roll did her best to be earnest. "I don't like being so helpless all the time. You have no idea what it's like to be the little sister of a great hero, but everyone thinks you're just helpless! I don't like feeling that way, so I've been watching videos of you to help learn to become a better fighter. Even though I had an energy sword instead of a buster, I really learned a lot!"

"Wait," Bass wrinkled his nose. "You've been watching videos of me..."

Roll cringed, growing antzy and uncertain. She tried her hardest to think of some logical explanation. How could she tell him the truth? Was it even right? How could he possibly react to "I learned to fight like you because you trained me in the old future that doesn't exist anymore"? From the look in his eye, Roll already knew that Bass wasn't going to let her dodge the question. To be Bass is to be stubborn.

"...Instead of your brother?"

Roll blinked. She calmed down at once, sort of, and her answers came to her more simply. "Well, yes. I couldn't ask Rock to train me, otherwise he'd get upset and tell me not to fight. You're an expert on fighting, so I watched you."

What ensued was one of the most interesting moments in Roll's life. She got to watch as Bass' eyes grew wide, and he just stood there, completely out of it and staring at the mysteries of the universe. His lips pulled in, and then all at once grew out and curved upwards. Spiteful joy made his face shine, and Bass just couldn't stop that awful grin from getting bigger and bigger. He lifted two joyous fists into the air.

"His own sister...his own sister would rather be trained by me!" Bass looked like he might explode from happiness. "I can't believe it! Ahaahaha!"

Roll winced, gazing back at the house with a pained expression. "Um, don't tell Rock, okay? I don't want him to know about it."

"Sure!" Bass oozed. "Of course I won't tell him! It'll be our secret! Yes! This is great!"

"By Cathartidae, Roll, what have you done?" A hissing chortle interrupted the dark robot's celebration. "Bass' head is going to get so big he's going to fall over and hurt himself."

"What the hell? Snake Man?" Bass cheerily and correctly observed the sudden arrival of the snake-bot, who bore most of Fire Man's remains in his left arm. "Here Roll, let me dispose of this bastard for you."

"Oh no you don't." Snake Man retorted. "Roll hersssssself invited me here, so you can put that thing away."

"What, is this true?"

By the time Bass had turned to Roll, she already half answered his question by reaching out for his buster arm to hold it back. The girl-bot nodded at Bass quickly.

"Yes, Snake Man is a guest of Light Laboratories." Roll said. "He's going to be protecting Australian wildlife, so I offered to upgrade him."

"And Fire Man too." Snake Man added. "If you want me to be able to get my animals through winter, you better fix up my 'assistant' too."

"What?" Bass snorted. "Does Rock know about this?"

Roll winced again, ready to blush. "Um, he will in a minute..."

"Bwahaha! What else doesn't he know about?" Bass' merriment would not be restrained, and he grinned deviously at the girl-bot. "The secret life of Roll Light. Sounds like a great novel."

"Hush, you." Roll turned to her guest, smiling apologetically to Snake Man. "Why don't we go inside? Auto's been pretty busy lately, but I didn't think you were going to say yes so quickly."

"Yeah, let's go." Snake Man rolled his eyes at Bass. "I wasn't going to come, but one night I had this...thissss...eh, dream I guessss. I was broken down, nearly dead, and there you were. Except it wasn't you. It was a robot with your head, but it had Mega Man's buster and Bass' legs. I mean, how ssstupid is that? I figure if I'm glitching _that_ badly then I better get a repair as soon as possible."

"That does sound pretty odd." Maybe this was just the way Bass heard it, but somehow Roll's tone didn't seem entirely honest as she answered Snake Man. "I don't know what would cause that sort of glitching."

"I hope Auto does." Snake Man let himself be led to the back door. "I don't want my memory scrambled."

"So what happened to your numbat?"

"I dropped it off at a zoo before I left Australia. It should be fine there until I get back."

Bass was ignoring the conversation between the other two robots. What did he care about Snake Man, glitching, and numbats? He still reveled in the knowledge that Roll preferred learning from him. The delicious thought tantalized him. In the space of only a day, both Rock and Roll had told him that he was the greatest robot now on the earth, even if they hadn't said so with their words. Bass couldn't stop grinning! So it took him a moment to notice that Roll was again speaking to him.

"Please wait a moment, Snake Man." Roll left him at the door and quickly approached Bass. "Um, Bass...Bass?"

The dark robot turned to find the girl-bot standing behind him with a question in her eyes. It didn't take long for the question to find its way out.

"So Bass...I was wondering." The girl-bot shyly asked. "Could you...maybe you would be willing to finish training me? There's still so much I have to learn about fighting."

"What? Hell, no. Of course not."

This startled Roll. "What? Why not?"

"Because it'll have to be a really screwed up day on this earth for me to have to teach _you_ to fight." Bass retorted. "Besides, who wants to put up with your brother's whining about it? Not me, that's for sure. Go be a happy maid or whatever and leave the fighting to the fighter-bots. Any don't try to copy me anymore. Dr. Light didn't build you for fighting, and you're just going to have to live with that."

"Aw, you're no fun."

"You bet I'm not." Bass winked. "Now got get Snake Man the hell out of my sight before I shoot his pretty little face off."

"Sssscrew you, Bassss!"

"Oh, don't listen to him." Roll quickly paced back over to Snake Man. "You know how disagreeable he is."

"That'sss for sssure."

The green robot glared one last time at Bass before he and Roll disappeared back into Light Labs. Bass didn't watch them. He was just in too good of a mood, and most of his attention span was occupied by the lovely thoughts of being earth's next robot hero. The dark robot imagined all the ways he was going to be better than Rock: he wasn't going to be so naiive, and he would make sure that nobody ever reared up their ugly heads like Dr. Wily ever did. He knew all of Wily's tricks, didn't he? In any case, it wasn't long before Bass too headed back inside the lab. He didn't want to stay there for much longer, but there was still the matter of the legal papers he had to send in to the REA to gain permission to travel.

_So, where should I go first? Hell, I should probably go to Korea. I'll pick something up there for Sonata. She'll like that._

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Another late entry. Oh well. I'd rather have a better chapter than one that's perfectly on time. I had to rewrite this one a couple of times. Man, writing something as massive as this fanfiction has been a great trip. I'm so glad that I did this. It's made me so much better as a writer, even if I can't really profit directly from this writing. Y'all have had so many good things to say about me, and though I know there are several areas where I need to improve the series (particularly this fifth story), I still felt like I've written something really good that people can enjoy. As a writer, there's really no better feeling than that. Thanks you guys, for your support. It really means a lot to me.

Character profiles! Oh hey, if there are any characters you want me to do profiles of that I haven't so far, let me know. If I have done a profile for that robot master before, I'll either point you to the chapter where it's located or write an expanded version for you, as some of the robot masters could use a little more backstory than what I put there.

In any case, two more!

=====Tornado Man

**"Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"**

Good point: Daring

Bad point: Extremely passionate

Likes: Autumn

Dislikes: Lightning storms

Tornado Man was created by Dr. Light around the time of MM8. He's a very useful robot, and his primary job is to do wind-tunnel testing for new aircraft designs or weather experiments. He also serves to stop or control dangerous storms. Tornado Man very much enjoyed both of his jobs. He loves playing with the wind, and will sometimes go out of his way to exercise his powers. He'll sometimes go play with children and sweep their toys into the air. If there are no children with kites around, he'll even play with leaves to satisfy his cravings to play. Of course, this gets him in trouble with neighbors in the fall, meaning he has to clean up all the stray leaves when he's done. Tornado Man once got in trouble with the city of Monstropolis for littering too much.

In any case, Tornado Man's life before MM9 was very happy. Tornado Man is very good natured, and thus gets along with his coworkers very well, however, when they found out his expiration date was coming up, the entire aerodynamics department of his company protested and attempted to get him freed. This attempt failed, and Tornado Man was doomed. The wind-bot actually would have been more accepting of his fate had his coworkers not protested, but after their petition he decided that he very much wanted to live.

Hence his gullibility to Wily. Unfortunately, Tornado Man was programmed to be very accepting of others, and also did not know the full impact of Wily on modern society. He thus was tricked. Also unfortunately, Tornado Man's personality ended up making him the defacto leader of Team 9, even though they weren't meant to be a team and were sold to various corporations. In fact, most of Team 9 hadn't met each other until they found out they were all expiring together. It was by Tornado Man's urging that they all agreed to allow Wily to reprogram them and free them from arbitrary expiration dates. They figured since Wily had failed to take over the world eight times by that point, he had already given up. Very obviously they did not know Wily that well.

Tornado Man became very foul when he was reprogrammed. His pleasant love for playing with his wind powers became an almost Burner Man-like obsession with wind, and he angrily attacked everything in his path that came near him. He actually was Wily's favorite at that point and proved to be terrifying to the general populace. Not so much to Mega Man, though.

When he became good again, Tornado Man was horrified to learn what he had done. Knowing that much of the incident was his responsibility, Tornado Man immediately confessed to the REA that he had urged the others to allow Dr. Wily to reprogram them, asking that they be let off because it was all his fault. The REA, however, was very merciful. They knew that it wasn't the robots' fault what they had done when they were reprogrammed, and so they ended up allowing all of the robots to live and get new jobs, provided that they never gathered together again without the expressed permission of the REA. Tornado Man was very grateful, and immediately resumed his best behavior and his old job.

And so Team 9 contacted each other from time to time, and they consider themselves good friends. They gathered together once more to help Mega Man and Bass destroy the last Skull Castle, but generally live out their separate lives. Many of them, Tornado Man included, went to go fight Zero in Monstropolis. Tornado Man, as expected, did Zero little harm. He was badly damaged in the fight, but has since been repaired by Auto and Dr. Imahara. He's now back at his old job, but has since petitioned Auto for upgrades. He knows that Auto got to look at Zero's body, and thus knows the best ways to upgrade robots so that they could defeat Zero again, if they had to.

=====Frost Man

**"Frost Man! Destroy! You!"**

Good point: Everything hefty

Bad point: Stoutness

Likes: Sorbet (rock candy)

Dislikes: Chilblain

In case you're wondering, chilblain is a sort of ulcer that happens in extremities like your feet when they get too cold. Often mistaken for frostbite, it's a possible sign of connective tissue disease. You have to wonder why a robot would be worried about this.

Frost Man was made with parts left over from Clown Man's machinery, though very few can tell by just looking. Frost Man is obsessed with all things snowy, and enjoys making ice sculptures and just generally playing with snow. He designed much of his fortress himself, judging that if Mega Man was going to die when he faced him, then he might as well have fun on the way. Of course, Mega Man didn't quite think the snowboarding segment was as much fun as Frost Man claimed it was, but that served Wily's purposes well enough. Blizzard Man at least enjoyed the segment, and he and Frost Man were the closest of friends. Actually, Frost Man got along with most of his Wily compatriots, other than ones like Elec Man that made fun of him for not being very smart.

Frost Man was being built during the latter half of the MM7 scheme, and like most of the Team 8 robots, he wasn't completed to the best of Wily's intentions. Wily wasn't feeling very satisfied with Team 8 in general, and he planned on taking a little longer to complete this team than he usually did. However, the falling of the evil energy on his island interrupted his plans, and he was forced to use substandard robots - or that was his excuse when he lost. The evil energy made Frost Man a lot more hateful than he usually is, and Frost Man was intent upon destroying Mega Man. He even practiced on his large set of Mega Man ice sculptures, as you see when you enter the boss battle.

After being defeated by Mega Man, Frost Man was part of the robot museum until Okkusenman. He stayed at the last Wily castle until it was destroyed, and was badly injured by Magma Man at the end of it. Like many other robots, he was captured by Signal Man and shanghai'ed into Dr. Cain's service. However, it took quite a bit of time to get Frost Man in order, and there was little the poor fellow could do until he was sent out against Mega Man and Bass in chapter 9. It's a poor way to reward a loyal robot like him. Frost Man thus has a case of cabin fever, and longs to be out in the snow again. And he still hates Mega Man.

Fortunately for him, he was one of the robots offered freedom if they would join up with those fighting Zero. Unlike most of the other robots, Frost Man actually survived his encounter with Zero. At the time Frost Man launched his ice wave attack at Zero, Zero was distracted by activity done by the Monstropolis' soldiers sent to contain Zero. Thus Frost Man got away scot-free, and has spent the last few chapters lending his strength to the construction crews trying to put Monstropolis back together again. He also generates snow and icy wind from time to time so that the human workers can keep cool. The humans appreciate him, and thus Frost Man is making lots of friends and feeling very appreciated. He's starting to think that maybe being a good guy isn't so bad.


	31. Mega Man's Ending

Napalm Man entered the little A.I. lab. The privacy wasn't strictly necessary, but all the same, Mega Man had granted Napalm Man the temporary use of the side lab. The wall to the left didn't glitter as usual - the computer and the various machines built into the wall were all off-line. There wasn't any need for them, at the time being. Likewise, the storage cabinets to the right, while they held useful materials, held nothing of interest to Napalm Man. In fact, to him, the only thing in that room earning its cost was the repair table, which bore a large, green robot. Usually any given repair table would be lain flat or perhaps tilted upwards at a forty-five degree angle, but this one was set all the way up at its highest setting - completely vertical. It held up its bulky burden by use of magnetic "massive clamps": three adjustible rods on each side of the upright table and a platform like a speaker's soap box underneath the robot's feet.

"Alright, Commando Man. I hope you're feeling reasonable today."

The words rung with a hollow disbelief. It was with a heavy sigh and shrugging shoulders that he reached out for Commando Man's neck and activated him. The purple robot stepped politely back, and after a moment, Commando Man blinked and sat up. The Team 10 robot gathered his surroundings with a dark, penetrating glance, which only got all the more dark when his eyes rested on Napalm. Still, Commando Man was mannerable. He made no attempt to break free of the massive clamps - he knew how strong they were.

"So," Commando Man spoke up casually. "What is this place?"

It was said (and it was fact) that Napalm Man wasn't the brightest of all robot masters. However, even he recognised that this was a very bad question to answer. Commando Man was still dangerous, and he wasn't likely to take it too well that he was smack dab in the middle of Light Laboratories.

"It's...a place." Napalm Man finally answered. "Um, just so you know, you've been deactivated for over a month."

"I know." Commando Man huffed. "My chronometer activated when you inserted those memories."

"So you saw them!" Napalm Man immediately straightened, trying to keep his excitement at least a little contained. "You know that Dr. Wily is dead. You saw the memories of what Zero did to Shadow Man, Elec Man, and the rest. They all died so horribly, and Wily had to have been the one to program Zero to do it. Dr. Cain never got the chance, and of course Elec Man wasn't going to program Zero to kill us all. That's what Wily intended. He wanted us to die."

"I know that. Don't speak as if you know no better." Commando Man muttered. He glanced away from Napalm Man for a quick moment, returning with an argument. "Perhaps it is because of your age that you don't understand. Dr. Wily never liked any of us."

"That's not true!" Napalm Man gasped. "He was so fond of Guts Man, and Shadow Man was always a favorite of his."

"Oh, will you be quiet?" Commando Man growled. "I listened to your nonsense, so have the decency to hear what I have to say. Now, he did like _those_ robots, but only at first. You're Team 5, his collection of _failures_, so I can't quite call you spoiled, but all the other early robots were. Dr. Wily did care about them because he believed that they would accomplish his purposes. As soon as they failed him, they lost his graces. A few of the earlier robots were upgraded or reused, but over time Dr. Wily stopped caring. He stopped believing in us, and it showed. His robots became less and less powerful, until finally he gave up on us altogether. Those of us on Team Ten know this better than you frivilous early things."

Napalm Man drew back a little, trying his hardest to understand. "But why would you be loyal to that? Come on, you don't have to be like that anymore. You can have a good master that does care about you. Besides, look, I have hands!" Napalm Man stretched them out to Commando. "The good guys gave me these. They can give you hands, ones that won't interfere with your cannons. You can be happy-"

"Do you think I am such a fool that I can be bought?" Commando snapped. "Dr. Wily was our master, and we are built to serve him! He was a fierce leader, but he was ours! It was our duty to serve him no matter what the outcome! Unlike you, a couple of hands won't make me turn traitor! I am absolutely loyal to him, and to think I once heard the same thing from your lying vocalizer! No, Napalm, I have made my choice. Take me away to your robot museum and be done with it. I will stay there as a monument to my master, alongside Guts Man and Shadow Man, his 'favorites'."

Napalm stood still for a moment, and whatever expression Commando Man had expected wasn't there on his face. Instead Napalm was incredulous. And was that...was that anger in his eye? Commando Man curved his eye into curiosity, so far the most pleasant look he'd worn since being activated.

"What?"

"What? You ask me 'what'?" Napalm Man sputtered just perfectly (he'd been practicing in front of a mirror, you see) "Come on, and you call yourself loyal to Dr. Wily? How can you do that and still go to the robot museum? I expected you to be smarter than that!"

"Um, what do you mean? Surely Dr. Wily would prefer me to go to the robot museum than to join you traitors."

"Buh?" Napalm's metal brow furrowed as much as it was able. "That's exactly what he _wouldn't_ want you to do. I mean, if he were alive, he would think that, but now that he's dead what does a display in a museum matter to him? If you're alive and activated, you can prove once and for all that Dr. Wily really was one of the world's greatest robotics engineers. No one would ever estimate him if you worked with the military again. You always did like that job, even if it was just your cover."

"I did like it." Commando Man admitted with a nod. "But that was not my true purpose."

"Your purpose was just to be a part of Wily's tenth scheme. Er, eleventh if you count that thing with King. Anyway, now that Wily's dead all he really wants is to be remembered. Isn't that just like him? You can prove to everyone that if they had appreciated Wily, they would have more robots like you protecting society instead of fighting against it. Besides, you don't really want to be dead, do you?"

Commando Man thought this over for a moment, blinking. He searched his mind for a proper reply, and found that he had none. Well, actually he did find the argument that Wily might possibly want his robots to be dead rather than the world get any benefit from his robots, but now that Napalm Man mentioned it, Commando Man did want to live. Besides, if he did something great, he could always attribute the success to Wily's engineering abilities.

"I suppose that you have a point." Commando finally gave way. "I do miss Colonel Pommer. He was one of the few people that could best me at a game of Tactics II."

"See, there you go." Napalm reached over to the computer and turned it on. "You can rejoin him. Or, if they don't let you, you can always join me and Blade Man at establishing our weapons museum. I've been talking it over with some city planners, and I think I can get the funding for it! It will be the coolest museum anybody's ever been to!"

"But what good would a weapons museum do for Wily's reputation?"

"Well...who else has been designing the most powerful weapons in the past twenty years?"

The very idea suddenly became immensely appealing to Commando Man, and images of the displays he could create in such a museum began running around in his head. The notion of having a gravity display - alternating gravity _was_ a Wily novelty - instantly captured Commando Man's imagination, and he started coming up with all sorts of different ways to curate the display. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't at first notice the little _zzzrn_ that meant his massive clamps were deactivated. Napalm Man approached, somewhat shy. Finally his friend was free, and apparently on the same side.

"Well, what do we do now?" Commando Man asked.

"Mr. Reyes told me to take you to the REA temporary office in Monstropolis if you decided to, um, cooperate." Napalm Man answered. "I called Colonel Pommer, and he said he's going to head here and speak to the REA for you. Hopefully he can get you your old job."

"I wouldn't mind too much if I didn't get it." Commando Man said, still thinking about the gravity display. "I would love to strategize a museum."

A purple teleport beam went up, and so did a green one.

-t-

"...Most of the time all he does is order me to help the kids with the homework or clean the house while he and his wife go out on a date," Proto Man said. "But when I first got to his house he got a perverse pleasure out of telling me to stand on one leg or wear a lampshade. I really hate my probation failsafes. Luckily, Mrs. Briggs programmed me to buy him dog biscuits every time he orders me to get him some cigarettes."

Mega Man laughed. It was good to laugh so freely again, and to speak with his brother, even if it was just on the main viewscreen of the laboratory. Auto was away trying to rebuild his Eddie-shaped shop, and Roll went out to buy more armor plating for the other two robots still in the lab: Snake and Fire Man. These two lay in the repair tables farthest back, incomplete and deactivated. They didn't count as far as company went, and so in that lonely and darkened lab (Mega Man wasn't one to waste electricity on lights) Rock had decided to call up Blues. He was happily surprised to see that his brother went without his helmet, though the brunet robot still wore his sunglasses, even inside the Briggs' comfortable living room.

"A dog biscuit?" Mega Man asked. 'Well, they say that dog biscuits do help people stop smoking."

"His wife seems to think so." Proto Man grinned. "She makes him eat them. He makes a big show out of pretending he likes the biscuits, but I'm going to get him the 'liver and tuna' flavor next time."

"Ouch." Rock laughed. "You don't spend all your time doing chores for the Briggs, do you? I was under the impression you were going to be some sort of special agent for the REA while you were on probation."

"Not so far. They want me to cool off for a while, I think." Proto Man sighed. "Living with Briggs really is a punishment."

"You'll be back on missions and things in no time." Mega Man assured him. "There's no way the REA would let your talent go to waste."

"As much as I want to get out of this house, I'm not sure I want to be their lackey." Blues leaned back a little in his chair. "Having to go play fetch for a bunch of federals...ugh. I'm not looking forward to dealing with their tedious rules and micro-management. I already have to write a bi-weekly report for your friend Reyes, though I'm so sure he's entralled by my activities: washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, and ooh, there was that time I put flea collars on the dogs. So thrilling..."

"Blues, of course you can handle the REA. How couldn't you? You're Proto Man! Besides, they're not so bad. They give me a lot of leeway."

"That's because you're you. They know how you are." Proto Man slumped down even further, though he still gazed firmly at his brother. "I'm not sure I know how to put up with them, or what they would want me to do. I'm not a hero like you, Rock."

"Of course not." Mega Man beamed. "You're your own type of hero."

Mega Man just kept on beaming. He always knew what sort of effects his happy little speeches had on his brother. Proto Man sputtered, trying to come up with some sort of response, but still stumbling over that little smile of his as it tried to be dignified. It evolved into an awkward grin, but that was the best the mildly embarrassed Proto Man could do.

"Well..." he finally managed to say. "It's only ten years. I guess I can survive that."

"Besides, the know how _you_ are." Rock mentioned. "You've got your independent streak, and they should learn to trust you quickly. If they have any sense, anyway."

"Hmph. Remember that this _is _the government you're talking about." Proto Man pointed his eyes to the left, and even with his eyes covered by the glasses this was pretty easy to see. "It's full of people like Harry over here."

"Ha! You wish it was!" The all-too-familiar face of the dark haired Irishman got back into view. "Then the government would definitely cut its spending! Make no mistake, they're the ones ruining the economy."

"Hi, Mr. Briggs." Mega Man said.

"Hey there, Mega Man." Harry Briggs plopped one of his massive sun-browned hands right atop Proto Man's wavy locks, giving it a violent ruffle. "Sorry about this, but I've got to take your big brother here away. There's dogs that need washing."

"Hey, wait." Proto Man turned his head to the human, inevitably twisting his hair even further into Harry's claws. "Aren't those the dogs that you were supposed to wash this morning?"

"I forgot. It happens. But the truth of it is, the missus is going to be home in an hour, and then she's going to find out the dogs didn't get washed. And we're going to have to put up with her. You know what they say; if the mom isn't happy, nobody's happy."

"I see. If only that didn't apply so well in this household." Proto Man shoved away Harry's hand and stood up, throwing his eyes back over to his brother. "You might think Mrs. Briggs is a wonderful woman, but that's only till you remember that she's the sort of person that would marry _him_."

"Ah," Rock nodded with a grin. "He drove her crazy, I see. Aw, Mr. Briggs, you're not really going to take my brother away from me, are you?"

"Tragic, isn't it?" Harry winked. "But you've got a robot's lifetime to talk to Blues here. I've only got an hour until doomsday. Let's go, kid."

"Yay, dog-washing. Yet another exciting job to report to the Robotic Ethics Agency." Proto Man sourly took a step in Briggs' direction, if only because the latter had his arm. "I'll call you later, Rock."

"Until then!"

The viewscreen went blank, leaving Mega Man a little longing. Sure, he'd had a nice half hour to talk to his brother about the ins and outs of life, something he'd never been able to do for years. Of course half an hour was pushing it for Blues. Mega Man wasn't even sure Proto Man had ever talked to anyone for that long of a period. But, of course, there was a lot about Proto Man that his little brother still had to learn. Mega Man knew this already. He casually stretched, then turned his chair from the console.

"Ah! Oh well. I've got work to do!" Mega Man said aloud for no particular reason as he stood up. "I've been putting it off for too long, and - oof!"

The blue bomber instantly laughed, facepalming and falling back into his chair. It was so silly. How could he forget? He'd done most of his work already. This sabbatical he'd been taking was plenty long enough. Not only to help Auto repair robots, but also take a break and get rid of all those silly tax forms he had to deal with. Thankfully the government let him delay filing his return, and he definitely needed the time. But now all of that was done. The taxes were filed and sent off, and also most of the work about the current year's expenses was also calculated. That meant he had all the data he needed, and all that needed to be done was to organize the data into one file so that next April 15 would be a breeze.

It wasn't even hard. Mega Man simply pulled out a green wire from the nearest drawer, sticking one end into his neck and the other into the computer. His mind knew how to rework the data and organize it. It didn't even require his full attention, unlike the muck and mire of the earlier forms. Mega Man leaned back and relaxed, waiting for his mind to finish it up so that he could forget taxes for another year.

That, of course, was kind of boring. Mega Man simply didn't do boring. He just couldn't stand it! He tapped his fingers on the console, then after a moment of inspiration, he tapped his fingers on the keyboard. How could he have forgotten the video letters? He had so many of them. As Auto had repaired each of the thirty-four volunteers, Mega Man had asked each one to leave him a video message of their new life as they rejoined society and abandoned their past as violent Wily-bots. Mega Man checked his vidmail on a smaller side monitor, and he was surprised to see that fifteen of them had already answered. He reached over and touched the first name on the list.

"Ah, Yamato Man. He's probaby doing really well now that he gets to see his master again!"

And when the picture of Yamato Man appeared, it certainly looked like he was just fine. Yamato Man sat out in some outdoor area, on a stone bench in a flat, vast lawn. Mega Man wondered if it was a garden; a bush, jolly with little pink flower buds, hung over the right side of the screen and surrounded Yamato's left side like the side of a chaise lounge. On the left side was a house with traditional Japanese sliding doors, sort of plain but not unelegant in its light bamboo (or Rock simply thought it was bamboo) panelling.

"Good afternoon, Mega Man." Yamato Man said, in a voice more calm and patient than Mega Man was sure he'd ever heard from the samurai-bot. "Or morning, evening, or whatever time it should happen to be as you watch this. I am here with master Yamamoto at his summer home near Okinawa. It is a calm place, though I wish my presense here was due to better circumstances. My master has been ill for some time, and the doctors can only tell him that he must get out of the big city and relax. Their words do nothing to hide their intent. My master's illness is very dangerous for one as old as he, and he knows it. Though...I like to think that being here with him I help him in the only way I am really able to."

Yamato Man shifted a little on the bench before he continued. He couldn't look straight into the camera anymore, but sagged his gaze down to the grass.

"I feared my master's reaction to seeing me again, both for my sake and his health. Though I had no reason to expect this, he welcomed me back as a lost son, and I have been with him ever since. The doctors smile at each other as if my simply being here will make my master get well, but...he is a very old man. Even should he recover there are not many years left to him. My only real desire for him is peace, and all the happiness he can stand. Who knows what will happen? My master's sons say that my return has been the third blessing to round out Yamamoto's old age, the other's being his youngest son's marriage and the birth of his daughter's son. This grandchild will be here in a few days, and is as bubbly a four month old as any can be, I am told.

"I suppose you wonder what happened to me legally. Not very much has, truth be told. The Americans handed me over to the Japanese government, but as my master is important in their eyes, I was allowed to join him with few interviews and procedures. As of yet I have no punishment, and I doubt I will get one. No one speaks of my past with Wily, other than questioning what I might have learned about robotics in general. It is the culture not to speak of horrid things, especially if the horrid things are over and done with. The only thing I suffer now is the loss of my companionship with my team. I miss them all very much, but due to legalities with their own countries, I am mostly unable to speak to them. Knight Man is doing well enough, but he is not as fortunate. He's been sent to work in construction, and he does no more than guard heavy machinery at night. Don't tell him I said this, but I find it a little funny how aggravated he gets about it."

Yamato Man looked toward the house again before returning his gaze to the camera. "That is all I can really say, for now. There isn't much to tell, and none of it very exciting. Still, I am happy as can be expected. Extend my greetings to the Light household."

And so the clip ended, leaving the screen in an anti-climatic black. Mega Man sniffled, rubbing a hand under his nose.

"Aw, I wanted something that isn't going to make me cry. I hope his master gets better! I also hope the next message is a little more cheerful...let's see..."

Mega Man went back to the vidmail list, perusing a few names. He noticed one that was marked "Burst M/Pump M".

"Oh yeah..." Mega Man put his hand forward. "I think they went to work together at the water park. That's not surprising. They really did seem like good friends."

But before Rock could click on their names, another one startled him. It would startle most anyone. It wasn't just the matter of getting a message from Burner Man, an opponant infamous not only for his power but also his insanity. What really caught Mega Man's eye was the "from" section of the vidmail accompaning this message: "The Great Fire-Culinarist Burner M. a la Flambeau". It at once both frightened the bomber and made him want to laugh. Of course he was going to click on it.

So Burner Man's likeness appeared on the screen, standing against a wall bearing pictures of samurai warriors and proverbs in eloquent Japanese script. Before him was a table of brick; one of those massive rectangles that had seating on the outside, but a huge, flat grill range in the center and on the side closest to Burner Man. A bin of shrimp, a tub of rice, a few dishes of spices, and some spatulas lay on the right side, within easy reach of the robot. Not only was the marvelously grinning robot clad in an apron and tall white hat (somebody must have turned off his head burner), but he held two large knives in each hand, crossing them over his chest like a late Egyptian king.

"What?" Mega Man gasped. "Someone gave Burner Man _knives_?"

"Hey there, Mega Man!" the other robot's recorded message began. "How are you doing? I'm doing GREAT! You wouldn't BELIEVE the kind of job the REA let me have! You know what I am? I'm a CHEF! That's right! This is where I cook!"

Burner Man lowered one of the knives, putting it down and replacing it with a spatula. As he continued to talk, he began shoveling some of the rice onto the grill before him. The rice sizzled pleasurably as Burner Man flattened it so that it would cook evenly.

"You know what I discovered, Mega?" Burner Man continued, still playing with the rice. "It that maybe, just maybe, there's more to life than burning stuff! Sometimes it just has to be toasty. When I was learning to cook, I found out that if you don't FLAME IT UP...eh, ahem, I mean, heat it up too much, then people will actually like the food! You just don't know what it feels like when the people come in, and actually enjoy the workings of a perfectly adequate flame! They like my shrimp so much! People even come in just to see me cook, too. Look at what I learned to do!"

By this time, Burner Man had the pile of rice shaped into a perfect heart. He slipped his spatula under it, then pushed down on the handle so that the rice went up and down, beating just like the organ. Burner Man laughed, and it was a nice laugh, not diabolical at all.

"See, see? Isn't it SO CUTE?" Burner Man, actually, was the thing looking so adorable, for once. "I can flip shrimp, and I can even make it land in people's mouths! I'm getting so good at it! Thank you, Mega Man! If I had known I was going to be so good at this, I would have left Wily a long time ago! I know you won't believe this, but none of the robots Wily had ever took me seriously. Hard to believe, right? I was only good for burning stuff, and I never had any real responsibility before. Now I get to make perfect, juicy food for people who pay me! I'M SO HAPPY! Anyway, I've got to get back to work. I have a to-go order for ten, and time's a'wastin! Talk to you later!"

Without noticing it until the message ended, Mega Man suddenly realized that the wanted to cry with joy. He never imagined that Burner Man would fit so well into society, and the moment was only made better by all of those doubts Rock had, all now suddenly erased. The relief of knowing Burner Man had a place soothed a place in Mega Man that he didn't realize was so tense. But of course he should have recognised this before; Mega Man really did believe that no robot should go to waste, and he knew very well that if Burner Man had gotten scrapped the sadness of it all would sting him badly.

"Oh no..." Mega Man laughed weakly. "I'm just too sensitive...it's a happy message, and it still didn't cheer me up. I don't know if I can stand to watch another, if they're all going to be this way. Huh, what's this? A message from Star Man? It might be important."

Mega Man hurriedly activated the thing, though he wondered why Star Man didn't just call him directly. Was he too busy on the space station? Whatever the reason, it didn't seem that urgent once the clip began. It was the image of Star Man in his (the humans') "swingin' sixties" lounge, looking quite relaxed and happy. Echelon Man, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable. Of course, it was hard to tell any of this Cain-bot's emotions. The dull blocks of his boring face didn't move that much, and neither did his metal unibrow. Star Man nudged him with an elbow, and Echelon Man began with a few halting words.

"You wished me to report in, Mega Man." Echelon Man said. "So...here I am. I am stationed to Star Man observatory, and I report to Harry Briggs. This job is very nice, and I like working in space. Yes. It's nice."

"Oh come on," Star Man urged him. "That really can't be all you have to say."

Echelon Man glanced back and forth from Star Man to the camera. He blinked. Finally, he turned back to facing the screen, and added a little, if only for Star Man. He spoke, and then was silent as a display in the robot museum.

"Thank you for the assignment."

A moment's pause. Echelon Man glanced hesistantly over at his boss, no longer bothering to face the camera. Star Man shook his head, but still smiled, if a little with frustration.

"Don't let him fool you, Mega." Star Man chortled. "Those words can barely describe how wonderful Echelon Man has been on this space station! He has just the perfect powers to do an outside inspection of the space station, and he's found a way to calibrate all of the sattelite dishes in half the time! Just last week he corrected a faulty orbit booster in no time at all! I just don't know what we would do without him! Best of all - and I do mean best - he does the very thing I very much wish a certain..._companion_ of mine knew how to do: he _shuts up_!"

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" Galaxy Man suddenly popped into view behind them, changing from a yellow shimmer to a curious blue. "Ooh, you're sending a message aren't you? Who to? Come on, you guys, tell me!"

"Go away, Galaxy Man." Star Man growled.

"Aw, come on, you aren't still mad about me playing around with your star charts, are you? I only hid them for a few hours!" Galaxy playfully patted him on the back. "I put them back when I was done!"

"Will you get out of here?" the star-bot stormed. "I'm busy!"

As he turned his back to the camera, Mega Man was able to see a bright, neon pink sign now on Star Man's back, saying "delete me". Echelon Man lifted half of his eyebrow, but, like expected, said nothing.

"Alright," Galaxy Man exclaimed, lifting up his hands in surrender and trying not to laugh. "I'm going, I'm go - "

_**Brrrinnnnggg! Brrrinnnnggg!**_ Sang the computer, as all images on it faded. _**Phone call! Phone call!**_

"Darn it, I wanted to see how that ended..."

Pressing a glowing red button on the keyboard, Mega Man watched as the face of Tim Reyes appeared on the vid screen and the tacky ringtone ended. The human appeared to be in a good mood, though the dark circles under his eyes showed that he was working too hard. As usual. Mega Man hoped that all the coffee Reyes drank didn't overexcite the human's heart too much.

For the moment, however, Reyes wasn't wired. "Hi there, Mega Man. I hope you're well rested after that little vacation you've been taking. We've been missing you here in Monstropolis."

"It's been nice." Mega Man said. "There's a lot about life that I miss when I'm working all the time."

"That's true." Reyes took a sip out of his coffee mug. "But it looks like we're going to need you. There's been a problem with some stolen construction supplies, and we need to figure out who's behind it."

"That sounds like a job for my brother." Rock mused. "He could find them easily."

"Probably. But it's hard to steal from anyone when our own invincible robot is guarding it. That's the job for you. We're going to need you to report in to the REA temporary HQ tomorrow morning at 6:00. That's when you can consider yourself back on duty." Reyes paused, and he put on his nicest, most doubtful grin. "You're not really planning on retiring, are you? What will we do without you?" 

"You'll do just fine." Rock assured him. "After all, you've got a police force of your own."

"I know..." Reyes said. "But it just won't be the same without you."

"Mr. Reyes," Mega Man spoke with a firm clarity. "When I started law enforcement, I was in it only to save the world from Dr. Wily. When you have a supervillain like him, you need someone fitting to get rid of him. But he's gone now, and really gone for good. I hate to say this, but I've done my duty. I've been fighting for so long I've almost forgotten why I'm fighting. And while most of it is that I want to protect the world, I also want to protect my family. They need me here. I haven't been doing my proper paperwork or helping keep the lab financed properly. I know the REA has helped us out some and I appreciate it, but I'd like to find a way to earn money for the lab that doesn't involve burdening taxpayers. And I know I'm just a robot, but I have family too, and I want to be there when they need me."

Reyes, who had been drinking his coffee again, lowered his cup back down to his desk. "You're not preaching, are you?"

"I don't know." Mega Man gave a little sneaky grin. "Are you spending enough time with your family?"

"I officially plead the fifth." Reyes' smile was sheepish. "Fine, fine, don't look at me like that. I'm scheduled for vacation in July."

"You better take it."

"I know, I know. So you're coming tomorrow, right?"

Mega Man nodded. "You need me, don't you? I'll be there. I'm not retired quite yet."

"Alright, then I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then, Mr. Reyes."

Rock hung up the line with one press of the red button. He sighed. It looked like he was back to the old grind again. A faint bit of relief flushed across his face as he thought of his last five years - no, four and a half. Half of Bass' first year of probation was already gone, and so Mega Man looked on it as an unexpected bonus. A nice cut away from the years until retirement.

"Well, I'm not retired yet." Mega Man began to push another set of buttons on his keyboard. "And there's one last person I need to check on."

He pushed the last button, a green one, and it sent its signal all the way to Peace Street Hospital. The image on the screen appeared, showing a mostly empty hospital room. The bed, in any case, was empty, though there was one occupant left in the room. It was hard to recognise this robot, especially since he no longer glowed his flashy neon colors, except a patch or two on his chest. Altogether he was much skinnier than before, and if his head hadn't remained unchanged (aside from no longer having that antenna sticking out at that awkward angle) then Mega Man would have had a much harder time identifying this robot.

"Algorhythm Man, how are you?" Mega Man chirped pleasantly. "You're looking a lot happier these days."

"Hello yourself, Mega Man." The orange robot swiped a hand at the monitor. "Oh, don't bother calling me 'Algorhythm'. Most people just call me Al these days, since the law had my weapons removed." Al lifted his once thick arms, showing off the skinny rods that they now were. "It's a sad loss. I'm really little more than a mechaniloid these days, though thankfully I get to keep my brain."

"That's terrible!" Rock exclaimed.

"Well, I brought it on myself, as you well know." Al might have blushed if he had the proper skin for it, but his chuckle was unembarrassed. "And besides, I don't mind it much. I miss hacking, admittedly, but this life is worth it. The REA has allowed me to serve my master, and this lovely hospital staff programmed me with a thing or two to keep me useful if the nurses are away. I'm so happy! To tell you the truth, I was never really too keen on the master's plans of getting rid of all robots. That was Emit Man's thing, the poor fool. I'm just glad to be serving my master again, even in this small capacity." Here Algorhythm eyed his caller with teasing suspicion. "Though I suppose you had something to do with that."

"Maybe." Mega Man winked. "Really, you're one of the most rational robots I've ever met. It would be such a shame if you were destroyed. Besides, a lot of people don't like Dr. Cain right now. They might not be so willing to take care of him at the hospital. How is he, anyway?"

Al was crestfallen at the mention of his master, answering with a heartbreaking whisper. "He's not well. You called at a good time, actually. He's away having some sort of tests done for his metal implants...you wouldn't like to see him now. His face was nearly torn in two, and even now it seems like it's taking forever to heal. Dr. Cain hasn't even been able to walk from the sheer pain. I'll be pushing him around in wheelchairs once we get out of here, at least until he adjusts to his new metal components."

Mega Man bit his lip, barely able to hope that the visual images in his head were worse than what Dr. Cain looked like. He did read the report, and Bass had so "helpfully" described all of Dr. Cain's injuries to him, using the excuse that he was "making conversation". Mega Man didn't care how sensitive Bass thought him. He still didn't want to know what it looked like when a human was slashed up the chest and face by his own rebellious robot.

"I can't imagine how horrible that is." Rock said. "How is he coping?"

"At first the doctor was so terribly depressed I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do." Al dared a smile. "But then this angel swooped into our room right from heaven, bless her heart! If it weren't for her I don't know if Dr. Cain would have lasted a single week in that hospital once he woke up. One day he was lying in bed, desperately sad, and then this lovely Indian nurse came in and practically demanded an autograph! She told him to hurry up and get better so that he could hold a pen to sign her autograph book. Why, Dr. Cain at once lit up, and it wasn't twenty-four hours before he could sit up a little and get impatient, waiting for her to come back. It made him feel so terribly important, you know.

"He's been getting so much better since then, and only a few days ago the local government contacted him and told him that they saw his plans for rebuilding society after getting rid of robots. It turned out that Dr. Cain's plans were so ingenious, that they actually worked to rebuild Monstropolis after Zero! They say that once he's better, Dr. Cain is going to be instituting new processes for disaster recovery. He'll can do so much to help clean up after hurricanes and tornadoes, they said! The doctor's been recovering so quickly now!"

"I'm glad to hear that!" Mega Man beamed. "He'll get to work and pay off all the damage he's caused. Not a lot of people get that chance."

"Don't I know it!" Algorhythm Man said. "Oh, while we're at it, I would like to know about my brothers. I know Epic Man will not be allowed...well, what about the others?"

"I'm afraid there's not a lot of good news. Because of Epic Man, the government isn't sure about the other Cain-bots. The only reason they were willing to let you live is because I could vouch for you. They don't want Psycho Man, Sight Man, or Bullet Man to be rebuilt. They're all in the robot museum now."

Al swallowed hard. "I see. And the others?"

"Well, that leaves Emit Man, Signal Man, and Echelon. Emit Man refused to volunteer to help destroy Zero. He said...he said he was loyal to Dr. Cain's cause of getting rid of robots, and he said Zero was just proving that Dr. Cain was right."

"Fool." Al tried hard not to glitch. "He always did care too much about Dr. Cain's cause...oh, never mind. Coming from me that must not mean much. Go on."

"As for Signal Man." Mega Man found it hard to continue. "He fought valiantly against Zero, and was one of the few that really managed to give Zero some trouble. That's why I'm very sorry to tell you that he wasn't able to be repaired. His mind was destroyed, and we didn't have a back up of it. The only good news I can offer you is that Echelon Man has joined Team 5 up at the Star Man Observatory."

"I don't suppose I could have hoped for better." Al sputtered down at the floor. "I'm not so sorry for the others, but Signal Man was so intelligent, and it's really a great loss. I'll miss him so much...other than Epi he was my closest friend. At least there is Echelon Man. Oh, he's such a muted little bother, but I do hope he is well."

"Here, I have your hospital room coordinates." Mega Man's hands typed away. "I got a vidmail message from Echelon Man this morning, and it looks like he's fitting in great. You should be able to just record it into your memory."

"Thank you, Mega Man, even for this much." Al humbly placed his hands together in his lap. "You've been better to us than I or my master deserve. Thank you. If you need anything from us, at any time, let me know. Oh," Al glanced away from the video phone for a second, standing as he looked. "Master's returning. I'm going to shut off the video now...my description of master's injuries was quite understated, you understand."

Mega Man reached for his controls. He shut down the computer, feeling at a loss. At this very moment, he realized that his job was done. Oh sure, he was going to go to work the next day, just like Reyes requested. But his true work, his real task, this was complete. Dr. Wily was gone, and Dr. Cain was subdued. His years of defeating megalomaniacs were over. Just like that, in one simple phone call. He'd done his duties, and was left with nothing, only a numbness as he sat still in that chair.

He remembered it, so long ago. Blessed with the memories of a robot, he could access at any time what he had done. Mega Man did so. He could still see Roll's innocent gasp - she knew so little then about what being a hero meant. Dr. Light's face too came to mind. The shock came first, but then an expression that young Rock didn't expect to see. No, it wasn't one of fear. It was realization in his creator's eyes, and then...trust.

**"I will go defeat him!" Mega Man had told them both, raising a noble fist into the air. "I'll go stop Wily from hurting everyone in Monstropolis! I'm a robot, after all, and it's a lot easier to repair us than it is to repair humans!"**

Had it really been so long ago that he'd uttered those words? Mega Man found himself at a loss. At that time, he never would have suspected that that first time he'd volunteered that it would take this long to deliver on his promise. Well, it was over now, and all he could do was sit and smile. Of course he would choose the same path over again, if he had to go back. All of this was worth it. Mega Man knew in his heart that if he was destroyed and sold for scrap tomorrow, that he had done something good for the world.

"I'm not going to scrapped just yet!" Mega Man stood up from his chair, gallantly lifting a fist over his chest. "I'm not done. How could I forget? Well, everyone likes to say I'm the invincible robot, and later on, they're going to call me the unstoppable robot!"

Mega Man glanced over the controls one more time. No, he hadn't forgotten anything; it was all properly shut down, besides the security feed. Mega Man nodded to himself, then promptly headed out of the far left door. He scolded himself for his previous thoughts. How could he say he was done when there was one last task to complete to stop Wily forever? Mega Man steered himself down the hall. The door to the lower parts of the lab wasn't very far. He opened it up and started to make his way down.

Now, most of Mega Man's work was done in the main laboratory. However, he had to consider that security at the lab, well, it hadn't exactly been at its best in the past, to say the least. Besides, there was one volitile project that couldn't be left upstairs, where Auto or Roll might mistake it for something else and contaminate the computer systems above. So for this project, Mega Man prepared a place in the basement where a safe computer could work on the problem without being networked with the rest of his lab.

It was, of course, the Zero virus.

Mega Man felt his throat tighten. It was a very dangerous bit of programming, and though everything inside of him urged Mega Man to just destroy the memory card bearing the virus and be done with it, the blue bomber wasn't so sure he could do that. Now, the virus couldn't affect normal computers, and from Mega Man's testing it wouldn't seem affect most normal robots either. But as Mega Man slowly descended those stairs, his fists could only clinch harder at the thought of what it would do to his youngest brother.

_I have to save X...and the future of all robotics!_

The cloud of Rock's grim mood evaporated suddenly as the stairs flattened out into a hall. The soft, pleasant waltz music playing quietly somewhere nearby didn't match the intensity of Mega Man's thoughts in the least. Where in the world was it coming from?

_It sounds like it's coming from the gymnasium. That's strange. Maybe Roll is cleaning down there and listening to the radio._

The gym's double doors were there to the left, and Mega Man might have just blundered into the gym all at once, if only it weren't for a giggle. Mega Man paused. That giggle was Crystal Bot's. More cautiously this time, Mega Man approached and gingerly pushed one door open a crack, peeking around. What he saw both surprised and delighted him, all at once.

A little radio sat on the floor, cheerily playing its classical tune even though nobody noticed it. Mega Man certainly didn't. He was too busy watching the most bizarre thing he never expected to see. It was Bass, and he was dancing a waltz with his giggling technician. Not only was he dancing, but he was _smiling_. Oh, it wasn't the biggest smile Mega Man had ever seen, but it was there, unrefutable proof that the dark robot actually enjoyed what he was doing.

Furthermore, he was good at it. Mega Man knew from experience that when someone watches a ballroom type of dance, they generally suspect that the woman is doing all the work because she's doing most of the spinning. He also knew the truth, that the male was the lead, and that took a surprising amount of work. Not only did Bass seem to have a waltz program in his database, but he also had it mastered. He graced the room as if ready for a competition. Crystal Bot wasn't as nearly as good. She did her best, but showed her clumsiness at times.

"See? That's the third time you've stepped on my foot." Bass said with a chuckle, still masterfully leading his Sonata about. "Now I'm really glad I didn't let you dance with Dr. Cossack. You would've broken his feet."

"I would not!" Crystal Bot protested. "I would've been extra careful with him!"

"Yeah, yeah." A sarcastic Bass rolled his eyes and spun her again. "I'm sure of it."

Mega Man politely closed the door, easing it in silently and heading on his way. He couldn't disturb the dancers; it would be too embarrassing for Bass. He silently thanked them for diverting his mind from the path it tread. The future wasn't to be feared. After all, Bass was the next great robot hero of the world, the one that would save the day if ever another genius, or not-so genius, ever dared to show his ugly head. Mega Man knew without knowing that Bass was going to be far better at it than he was, and was closer to deserving the title of "the invincible robot" than Rock ever believed for himself.

_Of course, no robot is truly invincible. _Mega Man took one last glance at the door behind him. _They called me the invincible robot, but really, it's all because I have the best friends in the whole world!_

And so Mega Man turned the corner, heading for the basement, and his scientific destiny. His adventures weren't over, just different. From now on, he told himself, all his enemies were going to be faced in the lab. Mega Man went forward knowing that he was going to follow in a great man's footsteps, becoming a successful scientist just like his father before him. Rock Light went forward into the future, trusting somehow, that everything was going to turn out exactly as it was meant.

The End.

Thank you for reading.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- So that's it! My massive project that's taken almost three years of my life is now complete! I really hope you guys have enjoyed this. It's something I've wanted to do for years and years: altering a story I didn't like the ending of. Please, tell me what you think. I started this thinking it was just something I was going to do in my spare time, but I've just had to finish this to really complete myself as a writer. I'm so excited that I actually made it this far, and I'd like to thank all of you who have been here, through the beginning and to the end. You've all been so wonderful, and I don't know what I would have done without your support.

As for the future, Bonus Features is going to be up in a while. I'm going to take my time with it to make it really good, and not really try to stretch myself too far. I was doing that with other chapters, and it's been a problem. So no more. After that, I'm going to take a break. I need to work on things that are actually publishable, so you know, I can do that thing where I earn money and eat food. I do have in mind a sort of series where I would do a short story for every robot master, but this isn't a massive project. It'd just be something I'd do every so often, if I happen to get inspired for it. Also, I plan on doing some editing of the past few chapters. I'm not quite happy with them, and I'd like to get them in better shape. No word on when that happens, but it will at some point or another.

- No, seriously, I really need reviews on Roll. I'd really appreciate it. Just any comment you happen to have in mind is fine.

- A "massive clamp" is called that because of its extreme electromagnetic power. The name is kind of a misnomer because it's not really a normal clamp, but just electromagnet force.

- Something that bothered me about the Mega Man racing game is that in Napalm Man's ending, he actually gets a weapon museum but nobody likes it. This is bizarre. A lot of people would like to see a weapons museum. I know plenty of people near where I live that would be willing to go, especially if said museum involves Mega Man universe technology. Heck, my ex-boyfriend's uncle has a ton of war collectible stuff out in his shed. Uniforms, weapons, canteens, and all that. He's waiting on my city to allow him to have a museum so he can display all of it publicly.

- Korean lesson! _Yongguk mal haeyo _is how you say "do you speak english?" Well, actually, depending on context, it can also mean "I speak english" or "he/she/it speaks english". Just sound curious and it'll be a question. _Meeguk mon mal haeyo_ is how you say "I can't speak korean"...or he/she/it can't. If you want to emphasize yourself, say _na-nun meeguk mon mal haeyo._

Note that while the word _mon _there, while it does mean "can't", it only has an "n" at the end of it because the next word starts with an "m". Normally "can't" is spelled _mos_, but often pronounced _mot_. Confusing, yes? Don't worry about it too much. I only mention it so you don't think _mon_ is the only way "can't" is said, and so you don't make a mistake if you're going to Korea any time soon.

Character profiles!

=====Aqua Man

**"Who opened their lunch?"**

Good point: facetious robot

Bad point: porky

Likes: Toilet humor

Dislikes: Serious drama

Aqua Man was one of Dr. Wily's last robots. It took a lot of work to get him together, and he wasn't at 100% by the time the evil energy fell to the earth. Unfortunately, Dr. Wily had spent so much time working on Aqua Man's body that he wasn't able to do too much in the time he had for Aqua Man's mind. Thus, we have the crazy water-bot, who says creepy things and is generally trouble to those around him.

Unlike the equally crazy Burner Man, Aqua Man did notice that he was crazy. He took it in the best way possible, though this was often an uncomfortable boundary between himself and his team. Sword Man and Astro Man tolerated him, Clown Man thought he was funny, and Frost Man liked to hang out with him to help make ice sculptures, so he had some friends, in his own team if not without. Tengu Man, however, tormented him frequently. The two military robots of the team were pretty friendly to him, though sometimes he creeped out even Grenade Man.

Aqua Man has serious body issues. He frequently complains of "pot belly", despite the fact he's a robot and that's just how he's built. He tries his hardest to take pride in his appearance, and washes and polishes himself regularly. He's gotten a bit narcisstic over the years, as he finally managed to convince himself that he's handsome - he says his best feature is his eyes.

Aqua Man spent a lot of time in the robot museum after Team 8's defeat, not making it out until the events of Okkusenman. As the last Skull Castle was destroyed, Aqua Man was destroyed by Splash Woman, but later recovered by Signal Man. Surprisingly, Aqua Man's general creepiness didn't really bother Signal Man that much. Signal Man just kind of expected that Wily's robots would be that way.

=====GrimMoody

Good point: Intelligent

Bad point: A huge nerd

Likes: All forms of caffeine.

Dislikes: Lies

Okay, dorky, I know, but it's the last character profile! I have to end this on a dramatic note. If you wanted another robot master to be here, you should have requested it in the reviews. :P Besides, I have to end this in an unexpected way, don't I?

GrimMoody grew up being a little...different. She amused herself as a child by speaking to inanimate objects, watching her brother play video games, collecting all kinds of knowledge whether it was relevant to her or not, and creating the fantasy that she was brought to earth in an egg by three fairies. Her mother, however, has since insisted that GrimMoody really is an earth-originating person - "I was there," the mother said, "so I should know."

Since then, Moody has attempted to make something of herself by writing fanfiction on the internet in the attempt to make people like her. While the success of this attempt is questionable, it has somehow developed in Grimm the skill to actually be a half decent writer - she thinks she's a great writer, but as all of you must surely know by now, Moody's views in this matter are biased. Very, _very_, biased. And perhaps, dare we say it, inaccurate.

She is by no means a bigot when it comes to things that keep her awake, and is mostly unable to tell the difference between good and bad coffee. Unless of course it's weak, because weak coffee is evil. Upon her travels to Asia, she even found a grotesque pleasure in drinking brown rice green tea, which is truly as bad as it sounds.


	32. The Final Bonus Features!

There was a large stage, open red curtains framing seven red, cushy chairs. A background of white projection screen is in the back of the stage, blank. All this, and yet there is no one to be seen. All of a sudden, huge fireworks go off, exploding and filling the room with color. As these fade away, a shower of glittery confetti and colorful balloons pour out all over the stage, right atop the author and five of her suddenly appearing characters: Mega Man, Roll, Proto Man, Bass, and Crystal Bot. The five sit in the chairs as GrimMoody herself, twirling in the midst of glitter and balloons in her pink, beaded blouse and black skirt.

"Welcome, welcome all!" she giggled. "To the fifth and final Bonus Features!"

Canned applause sounded from hidden speakers, which was good because nobody onstage seemed ready to applaud. Mega Man grinned at the spectacle, smacking a red balloon over to his brother's chair, who swatted it back. Roll tried to sweep off all the confetti that kept landing on her, but more kept falling all over her, going down her dress and getting tangled in her hair. Bass stared at it all with his chin on one hand, flicking away any balloon that dared land near him. Crystal Bot merely stared at it all, enjoying the shiny glitter with wide eyes.

"Hey Crystal," Moody said, pointing above the robot's head. "Pop that pink balloon coming down."

"Okay!"

Crystal Bot snagged a screwdriver from her dress, lifting it above her head and stabbing it into the falling balloon. Instantly a loud _**BANG **_alerted everyone, and a massive explosion of glitter rained down on Crystal, leaving her buried in an ever so shiny wake. Even still, she giggled, spitting the glitter out of her mouth and wiping at her eyes. The glitter didn't stick much to the metal, but left Crystal Bot sitting half-buried in a pile of glitter. It did stick in her hair, however, leaving its auburn locks bright and pretty. Or tacky, if that's your opinion.

"Hee, hee!" Sonata kept right on giggling, even as she tried to clear off the shiny stuff. "I like that!"

"Thought you would!" GrimMoody winked. "Anyway, guys, this is the very last Bonus Features! Make it a good one, alright?"

"Finally." Bass muttered, though not unhumorously. "It's about time we didn't have to do stupid things like this anymore."

"What are you talking about?" The author stuck her hands on her hips. "None of you were in the last two Bonus Feature specials. Well, except for Roll, but that was basically a cameo."

"Yes, but that was because we were _dead_, might I remind you." Proto Man said. "Thanks a lot for that, by the way."

"Oh, stop whining, y'all. You're perfectly fine now, aren't you?" GrimMoody turned back to the camera, going back into hyper-sugary-caffeinated host mode. "So anyway, YAY! My three years hard work has payed off! As of the writing of this episode of Bonus Features, these are our stats: the wordcount is 727,180; the stories have gathered a total of 288 reviews, 59 favorites, and 34,735 hits; and finally, stories in the Okkusenman quintology appear on four different C2 lists! WOOHOOO!"

Despite themselves, the characters began to grin and clap. Crystal Bot practically squealed with delight, and her boss in the chair beside her grinned smugly.

"Wow, that's a lot of reviews!" Roll gushed. "I'm so happy that people enjoyed this story."

"And I'm so surprised." Rock said, though not without amusement. "It's not like Moody here knows what she's doing."

"I suppose people enjoy watching us suffer, or something like that." Proto Man mused.

"Actually, that's not quite true." GrimMoody pointed out. "You guys suffered the most in Wily Ga Taosenai, but that story actually has less views than the others."

"Unlike Afterlife, where we were _dead_." Proto Man rolled his eyes. "And that has the most views."

"I think most people like that because it's a Classic/X crossover, technically speaking." the author shrugged.

"Don't be silly." Bass grinned. "People enjoyed that story because I was in it. After all, your two most popular stories in the series are Okkusenman and Afterlife, and I was the main character in both of those. I guess I'm just so charismatic the fans can't get enough of me!"

"So true." Crystal Bot nodded. "Forte-kun is the coolest guy ever! And it doesn't hurt that he has a totally cute technician!" The girl-bot winked at the camera.

"Guh..." Proto Man facepalmed.

"Silly people." GrimMoody turned to the camera. "Moving on, how do you guys feel about the story series finally being over?"

"Wonderful!" Mega Man said. "Now I don't have to worry about you lying and saying you're actually going to feature me in the story. I mean, I'm used to it by now, but it's just nice not to have to worry about it anymore."

"I like that I don't have to think about my past anymore." Proto Man nodded. "Going through all that was pure torture, and _of course_ you had to make Rock find out about my past in the worst way possible. It's great that there's no more story for you to be able to reveal more of it."

GrimMoody raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And you're sure about that?"

Proto Man's mouth flattened into a line. "Oh no...gah, of course you would think of something for Bonus Features. At least none of us will remember this later. Fine, just get it over with."

The author winked at him before turning to the other half of the stage. "So what about you guys? How do you feel?"

"Better, but this story wasn't so bad." Bass put his hands behind his head, relaxing in the chair. "There were some annoying parts, but it's nice that you're embarrassing Proto Man more of the time instead of me."

"That's mean, Forte." Crystal Bot scolded him, but not sternly as the glitter in her hair still had her in giggles. "I liked the story this time! I got my daddy back!"

"That reminds me," GrimMoody lifted her hand toward the right side of the stage and the last empty chair. "We have one more special guest to introduce! My favorite character in the entire Mega Man series, Crystal Man!"

"Yay!" Crystal Bot squealed. "Yay, Daddy!"

Out onto the stage stepped the aforementioned robot, looking mostly the same as he always had, though somewhat taller than he had before. If you looked closely enough, you could see new details and upgraded crystal orbs - assuming your eye can tell the difference between a crystal and an upgraded one (the upgraded version is shinier). As usual, his face was mostly covered by the front of his helmet, but his eyes were stern, and also red like his daughter's. In any case, Crystal Man went to his daughter, who squealed like a little child and reached out for his hand. He gave it a quick squeeze before going over to his chair. He glanced down at the piles of glitter on it.

"Um, Moody." he said. "Doesn't this glitter seem a bit excessive?"

"No. It's glitter. Glitter is never excessive." GrimMoody snorted. "Oh fine, I'll get rid of it."

With the clap of her hands, all the balloons and glitter disappeared from the stage, and all but Crystal Bot sighed with relief (the girl-bot pouted). Crystal Man finally settled into his chair, ready to get on with it.

"Hello, everyone." Crystal Man addressed the camera. "I am Crystal Man, DWN-040. One would think that my being GrimMoody's favorite character would entitle me to more screen time, but alas, that is not the case."

"Actually, I was thinking about making you be alive, but then I wrote Crystal Bot." Moody smiled. "And you're not bitter about it at all, I see. Come on, she's your daughter. Surely you're happy about her getting screen time, aren't you?"

"Yes," Crystal Man eyed the author disdainfully. "But that does not stop me from noticing that you are merely dodging the matter."

"Yeah, she does that a lot." Mega Man agreed.

"Dorkfaces. The both of you. Okay, so let's start off with the usual questions." GrimMoody pulled some notecards out of nowhere. "First of all, tell us a little about yourself, Crystal Man."

"There isn't much to tell that hasn't been covered in the story." he shrugged. "I was created by Dr. Wily at the same time as Team 2, but at that point I was a mechaniloid and capable of little more than walking and producing crystals. I remained in this form until Dr. Wily formed his fifth plan, and we all became Team 5. Yet somehow I retained my memories as life as a mechaniloid, and the very first moment I was given sentience, I found myself in hatred of Dr. Wily and his plans."

"Ouch." Moody bit her lip. "Hating your own creator. That must stink."

"Yes, it was definitely unenjoyable. I'm not entirely sure why that was, as Dr. Wily was the one that programmed me, but I think it was due to Proto Man." Crystal Man gestured to the other side of the stage. "Though I was a mechaniloid then, I rememer when Blues was one of Dr. Wily's servants. Though I had no emotions or understanding at the time of his servitude, once I gained sentience, I instantly knew that serving Dr. Wily was a mistake. Wily had no problem using Blues for his aims, and Blue took Wily's betrayal quite hard."

Everyone's gaze went over to the third chair on the left, and Proto Man's head turned downward to the floor. While the robots appeared sympathetic, GrimMoody grinned, rubbing her hands together gleefully.

"So, you have an embarrassing story to tell us about Proto Man, yes?"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Mega Man protested. "That's none of your business. Leave Proto Man alone. Hasn't he suffered enough for your twisted story aims?"

"Yeah, leave him alone." Roll supportively clutched Proto Man's arm. "His story is over and done with."

"Hell, I'd like to hear it." Bass leaned back in his chair, ignoring Proto Man's glare. "Tell us a story, C-Man."

"There is no need for concern, Lights." Crystal Man said. "Blues wasn't usually present in Wily's castles. He was either doing a chore or avoiding Wily, especially after the Gamma incident. My few memories of about him mostly just concern him taking orders...ooh, except that one time..." Crystal Man looked up at GrimMoody and frowned. "Eh...never mind. There is nothing."

"What?" Bass grinned. "If you have a story about Proto Man, spit it out already!"

"No." Crystal Man smoothly replied. "I forgot."

"That's okay. I took the liberty of recording the memory on my projector." GrimMoody turned downstage, calling out to Auto in the sound station. "Hey Auto! Play the first file on there! The one labelled 'Wily's Autograph'."

_**Phhhhwwwwzzznnnn...BLAAADOOOOOWWWWW!**_

With one charged pulse from Proto Man's buster, nothing remained of the poor little projector except a pile of molten goo dripping off the now melting plastic stand that once held it. Thankfully the precision-aimed blast had completely missed Auto. With that, Proto Man sat back down in his chair with a firm nod. Bass snickered.

"Dang. It must have been a really good story." the dark robot grinned. "Too bad we can't see it now."

"Oh, it's not all that much." the author replied. "It's just a little bit about Proto Man asking Dr. Wily for his autograph. Proto had a friend who was sick in the hospital years and years ago, and he was hoping that the signature of a 'famous scientist' would make the guy feel better."

"Heh." Bass chuckled. "That's lame. I was hoping he did something really stupid like call Wily his hero or something."

"It's not as lame as it sounds. Wily didn't want to sign the autograph, and Blues tried his hardest to get him to."

Bass burst out laughing. With a sickened groan, Proto Man buried his face in his hands, left to only hope that his family would support him. Much to his horror, Mega Man chuckled as well, and Roll had to cover a smile.

"Grimm's right." the blue bomber said. "That isn't too bad. Aw, Blues, you didn't know any better at the time. You were just trying to cheer someone up."

"Yeah." Roll patted his arm. "Besides, you have to imagine how much a signature like that would be worth these days. Your friend could sell it and donate the money to a good cause."

"Betrayed by my own siblings." Proto Man sucked in a sharp breath, glaring at them through his vizor. "Thanks...guys..."

Crystal Bot let loose a load of giggles, causing the poor Blues to turn his glare her way. Then, just to be fair, he glared at Crystal Man for bringing it up in the first place.

"You know, Moody, you can put up a deleted scene any time now."

"I could." she folded her arms. "But somebody blasted my projector."

The red and grey robot shifted his angry eyes to her. "Use your author powers to fix it."

"I am. It's just taking awhile. Author powers sometimes do, you know." GrimMoody chuckled. "Aw, just kidding. Here ya go! Hit the button, Auto!"

**"Introducing, my greatest work yet," Roll said, lifting an arm for dramatic emphasis. "Crystal Bot!"**

**The second girl-bot giggled at this, and indeed Roll had done a good job. Her hair was up in a simple bun, but her dress more than made up for it. It was a dark green dress with a halter top and baby doll waist, glittering with little crystals. Long, dangly earrings that matched her dress hung from her ears, making the shiny girl-bot even more shiny than she usually was.**

**"You look really good in that, Crystal." Rock said. "That dress is very you."**

**"Um...thanks..." the tech-bot squirmed. She never was that comfortable near Mega Man. "You look dorky."**

**"He does not!" Roll said teasingly.**

**"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain his hair?"**

**The black waves that made up Mega Man's distinctive do were sort of sketchy, Roll had to admit. "Well...I really don't know why Dr. Light had to give him such hard to mess with hair. It just sticks up like that on its own, and you can't do anything much with it."**

**Crystal Bot snickered. "Dork."**

**Bass' technician rarely got on the good natured robot's nerves. Mega Man only smiled. "Have either of you seen Dr. Cossack? I've been looking for him."**

**"He's with some of the scientists next to the dance floor." Roll said. "It's a wonderful party and there they are huddled and talking about their latest projects! They need actually have fun once in a while."**

**"You need to have fun once in a while!" Crystal said. "That guy wanted to dance with you but you said no."**

**Roll's face crumpled, and she winced. "Uh, Crystal, that man was hitting on me because he didn't realize I'm a robot."**

**"Hitting on? What does that mean? He didn't punch you."**

**"Uh...I'll explain it to you later." Roll wondered if Crystal Bot knew anything of the world outside of a laboratory. "Rock, you go ahead and have fun. I need to find Kalinka. This place is so crowded!"**

**Today was a strangely annoying day for Bass. He was conflicted. All of it stemmed from this walk through the American embassy in Russia, escorted by a stiff soldier that never spoke. Bass eyed him warily; he was obeying the rules that both Russia and America had placed on him, and he didn't like being distrusted and led around by a guard. **

**He hoped he wouldn't have to be there long. That was the source of his main frustration. The party had ended and Treble had made the interesting find of two dead Wily robot masters, and nothing should have held him back from continuing his search for Zero. That was when he got the call that his ethics agent, Tim Reyes, wanted to see him. Bass first suspected that the American was trying to check on him, but he had been assured that this was about a job.**

**And that was the good part. Bass grinned thinking of it.**

**~"Why the hell can't you get your little blue boy to do it for you?" **

**It was after the party, but Bass wasn't yet out of his tuxedo from the party as he yelled at the telescreen. He had, however, managed to find his helmet so he felt a little better about addressing Tim Reyes in that getup. **

**"All of my collegues believe that Mega Man can't handle this situation." Tim replied, rubbing his chin. A nick in his skin seemed to be irritating him. "They feel that you are the most capable robot for this mission."~**

**Oh how that filled him with the utmost joy! It lightened him considerably, and his trip to the embassy was filled with thoughts of fighting some dangerous foe, one far too difficult for the lowly blue bomber. Perhaps it was too complex, requiring a significantly more powerful mind. It delighted Bass to no end that someone believed him superior to Mega Man - government agents no less! A thought nagged him, reminding him that they weren't likely to tell him of something more dangerous than Zero, but it entertained Bass too much to let go of this happiness. He had to wonder what convinced them of his "clear" and "obvious" superiority.**

"These two scenes are the result of some plot puttering I did." GrimMoody explained. "I wasn't really sure how exactly I wanted each chapter to go, and these are some early drafts of that. In the first scene, Roll was showing off her work on Crystal Bot, but revealing Crystal Bot's dress this late meant that I couldn't use CB for earlier scenes, and I like the part where Bass tries to trick Rock into asking Crystal to dance."

Crystal Man eyed Bass warily, but he just sat quietly and let the author go on, acting completely nonchalant as he examined his fingernails.

"As for the second scene, that's just an alternate way to get Bass to the American embassy in Russia so that Reyes can explain to him that he wants Proto Man caught. It wasn't really that great, and the material was better when I showed Mega Man there, making it awkward for Reyes to explain what was going on."

"Hey, wait a minute." Bass squinted up at the projector screen. "How come 'clear' and 'obvious' are in quotes up there?"

"Ahem, no reason." GrimMoody coughed and quickly changed the topic. "Okay, so Crystal Man, I just realized I forgot to ask you some more questions. So, what's your favorite color?"

Everyone on the stage besides the author and Crystal Man groaned. The male shiny-bot just blinked with confusion, answering the question uncertainly. "Um, well, I like all colors. There is an appropriate place for every color to be enjoyed. But if I had to say the one I preferred, it would be...hm, probably lustrous."

"See!" Crystal Bot pointed triumphantly at Mega Man. "I told you shiny was a color!"

"I stand corrected..." Mega Man said with the shake of his head, not wanting to start conflicts he couldn't end.

"Why the hell don't you think of any better questions?" Bass muttered at the author. "They're so lame. You don't have any clue how to do an interview, do you? You've basically asked every character that appeared in Bonus Features those same questions."

"Not true." Moody answered. "I didn't ask Top Man, Sheep Man, or Ping Duplicitous. But anyway, thanks for reminding me of the other question I always ask. Crystal Man, who do you consider your hero?"

Everyone groaned again, and Proto Man turned to Bass. "Good job, Bass. You just had to remind her, didn't you?"

"Don't give me that crap." Bass snapped. "GrimMoody probably already remembered the question and she's just blaming it on me."

With glittering eyes, GrimMoody winked at Bass and promptly ignored his implication. "So Crystal Man, why don't you go ahead and answer the question?"

"You might as well." Mega Man said. "She'll probably lock the doors until you do."

"Very well." Crystal Man shrugged. "I don't know if I can answer your question very well. I admire several people, such a Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Ghandi, Confucious...philosophers of all types. But I suppose if I really must choose a _hero_ of some sort, it would have to be Forte. He has acted heroically, just as I foresaw when I began to formulate my plans to free my team from Dr. Wily. Not only has Forte enabled them to be free, but he has also rescued and protected my daughter on several occasions."

"No problem." Bass let out a wide, smug grin. "I'm just awesome like that."

"I'd like to point out that Bass didn't have any intention of freeing Team 5." Proto Man mentioned, ignoring Bass' nasty glare. "He did that almost inadvertantly. And he only saved Crystal Bot because he wanted a technician."

"It doesn't matter." Crystal Man replied. "Whether he knew it or not, Forte completed the task. Also, I built my daughter to be a technician because I knew this would encourage Forte to help her. Didn't anyone see the note I left in Sonata's CPU?"

"Not in this timeline." GrimMoody piped up. "That happened in the old timeline, but it was erased because I sent Roll back to a point before then to fix history. Crystal Bot never got a chance to train Bass to look for hidden files on her system this go-round. Your note is written in How Many's secret chapter at the end. If anyone missed that, they can go back and look. This chapter isn't going anywhere." The author winked toward the camera.

The characters groaned with spite. Bass snarled with disgust. "The ego on this girl!"

"It would be better if she stopped plugging her stories and plugged her mouth." Proto Man shook his head. "It's not like her stories are that good."

"Oh!" GrimMoody grinned. "That reminds me. On my blog, Arc Rose Studios, I've just restarted my Hero of the Month series, and it's about these girls with superpowers. Right now I'm working on the May girl-"

"Whoa! Advertising!" Mega Man piped up. "That's against the fanfiction net guidelines!"

"I'm not advertising...I'm..._telling_." the author managed, then threw her hands in the air. "Oh, bother you people! I mean, I wrote you guys such a nice ending too. You know I can go back and edit those chapters, right?"

"Not after all I went through, you don't!" Roll huffed, folding her arms with a pout. "I'm not about to deal with another time change!"

"Besides," Proto Man pointed out. "If it took you this long to write the Bonus Features segment, who knows how lazy you'll be about finishing another story ending."

"I need characters that don't know me so well." Moody grumbled. "Bah. Auto, the next deleted scene, if you will."

**"I've got their CPUs in the computer!" Crystal Bot exclaimed joyfully. "Gemini Man's is too damaged, but Sword Man's is processing. Aw, I kinda liked Sword Man. He was cool."**

**Bass rolled his eyes. "He was a loser like the rest."**

**Crystal Bot scowled at her boss, wrinkling her nose and turning sharply back to her computer. Bass let it pass for the time being. She was extra grumpy that day, and her glance went straight to the source of that irritation: Mega Man. The blue bomber was inside her cozy lab. His conversation with Bass at the party had piqued his curiousity, and of course he wanted to know as much about a potential threat as he could. Moreover, the dark robot couldn't object; part of the conditions of his probation was that he had to allow Mega Man to see anything he was investigating. It wasn't a right that Rock used a lot, but that didn't mean Bass liked it.**

**The girl-bot had it worse, or at least it looked that way. She wandered from computer to computer, explaining things to Mega Man in the fakest happy voice she had. Every so often she would look back at her boss, biting her lip and shining her questioning eyes. Bass only glared in reply. What did she expect him to do? Tell Mega Man to go away? She could do that herself.**

**"So what exactly did you find on Cut Man?" Mega Man asked. "Any leads?"**

**"It's kinda weird." Crystal resisted the urge to look at Bass. "I mean, the past month of his memory was heavily encoded, and once I got past all that I didn't find anything. All his memories were deleted. It's like someone just wanted me to waste my time."**

**"That doesn't sound like Wily." Rock said, rubbing his chin in wonder and staring upwards in thought. "It would be more like him to leave some ominous threat or clue behind."**

**Crystal Bot took advantage of Mega Man's distracted gaze to silently beg her boss for relief. Bass scowled and turned away. Crystal returned the scowl to his back, despite the little good it would do.**

**"Well," she said, going back to the subject at hand. "I mean, it's really annoying and that's like Wily. Ha, if I was on his side I'd be laughing really hard!"**

**She grinned delightedly, but the questioning look Mega Man gave her was enough to melt her happy grin into a nervous pout. She glanced at Bass (who still wasn't looking) without even worrying if Mega Man saw. She sighed.**

**"I'm not gonna betray anybody." she stuck out her lip in a not entirely childish way. **

**"I know." Mega Man's smile was confident. He knew how nervous Crystal Bot was around him. The transition to "good guy" hadn't been an easy one for her, and he didn't want to make it any harder than it had to be. "But what was the last clear thing you got from Cut Man?"**

**"Well, he was hanging out a lot with Team 2." Crystal Bot said. "Everybody besides Air Man was there. I don't know where they were meeting, but it might be a place that you recognise. I got you his CPU, and here's a disc that's got some specific things you wanna look at, like the path he took to go meet up with everybody."**

**The tech-bot handed Mega Man the CPU and a small zip drive. He tucked the CPU safely into his armor and stuck the zip drive into his neck. He nodded as the information ran through his mind and made itself known. As it processed, he felt himself filled with a sense of duty. Team 2 was the most serious and the strongest of the robot master teams, just the thought of fighting them again made Mega Man's selfless sense of heroism rise up. He just knew that he would be able to defeat them! Unconsciously he lifted a cute, determined fist, and Crystal Bot almost cracked a smile at how adorable he looked. **

**"Right, so how long will it take to get information from Sword Man?" Mega Man dropped his cute pose. **

**"Not too long." Crystal went over to the computer. "He's just got basic Wily encoding, and I know all about that! I think they were after Forte-kun, but I gotta confirm and make sure."**

**"Only two robots?" Mega Man questioned. "Er, three if you count the Gemini clone. I doubt that's enough to destroy Bass."**

**"Of course not!" Crystal Bot smiled with pride, folding her arms. "Not with my upgrades! But uh, it's possible that they're trying to distract him or maybe there was more of them and the drifts of snow covered up other people's tracks. Treble dug for hours and he didn't find anyone else."**

**"Is he still out there?"**

**"Yeah. Forte's headed out now to join him."**

_**It's about time.**_** Bass grabbed a couple of E tanks. **_**I should have been out of here hours ago.**_

**His maintenance had been finished during the night, directly after the party. Thankful that robots don't sleep, Bass tested his busters. His hands transfered from hands to busters and back again in 1.04 seconds. Satisfied with that, he began to set up a transmission to Treble. **

**"Hey, I got a transmission." Crystal Bot tapped a glowing button on the computer console. "Oh, hey mister Reyes."**

**Every bit of Bass joined in the cringe as Bass gritted his teeth. His ethics agent was on the line, and that meant another delay. Now that Mega Man was involved, Bass knew that there was less time for him to find Zero before something happened, like Zero awakening or Mega Man volunteering to help. Bass wanted to gag at the thought of assistance from the bomber, but he forced himself to calm down. **

**"Oh sure, Forte's here." Crystal chirped at the Hispanic human. "Hey Forte-kun, it's your ethics agent."**

**"Yeah, yeah, I'm not deaf." Bass irritably approached the viewscreen, addressing Reyes with his typical disdain for authority. "So? What is it?"**

**"Tell Treble what's going on and to contact me directly if he finds anything." Bass programmed the coordinates of the American embassy into the teleporter. "I'll teleport directly to him rather than come back here."**

**"But..." Crystal Bot stopped herself, glancing over at Mega Man briefly. **

**"Just show him the stuff and make yourself useful." Bass knew how Crystal felt about being left with Rock, and he didn't care. "I've got to get this over with."**

**"Good luck, Bass!"**

**"Shut up, Rock."**

**Bass teleported out, leaving the two to finish up their business. Rock was by then far used to Bass. It was still bothered him that Bass was so rude, but he let it go. Protesting would have been worthless anyway. **

**"Okay, so what exactly is on Sword Man's mind? What was he doing in Russia?"**

**"Uh..." Crystal Bot twisted her lips, then started clicking away at the computer. "His memories are sketchy at best. It says here that he was going to go get Wily out of jail at some point, but from what I recovered, he didn't have any specific plans right away."**

**"Well, that's good news." Mega Man said. "Unless the robots that were going to break him out were different ones. Exactly how damaged is Sword Man's mind?"**

**"Pretty bad, it's scratched from broken CPU casing. I'd give it to Auto to look up, but there's no sense in risking it getting more damaged." Crystal Bot sounded a little impatient. "Besides, you've got Cuttie, and he was always more of a big-wig than Sword Man anyway. Sword Man was told to do something, and he went and did it. Wasn't into planning or anything like that."**

**Mega Man nodded. "That's right. I'll actually miss Sword Man. He always seemed so good natured for a Wily robot. It's not fair that he died like this."**

**"He was still a bad guy, Rock." Crystal huffed before going on in a more reminiscent style. "And he was really...silly. He always helped me find ways to blow stuff up. He would make these long trails of black powder and light them on fire, and-" Suddenly remembering who she was talking to, she at once cut off, pulling her arms down and growing a little sullen. "I mean...he was cool. Oh yeah, I've got to show you the bodies. Hurry up!"**

**Sonata went over to the automated machine, waving for him to follow. She pressed several buttons on the side computer. The large, imposing door panel drew upwards and back out of sight, and with the pressing of two more buttons, a flat metal bed emerged from the opening in the huge machine. On it were strapped Gemini Man and Sword Man's remains, though sadly there was only enough of their bodies left to identify who they were; the bulk of their armor was gone, and this was the only way that both of them were even able to fit on the repair table. **

**The slightly paler color of Gemini Man identified that this was the clone rather than the original. His headdress was severed in the head wound that not only had killed him but robbed him of a readable CPU. It was very cringe-worthy, just thinking about receiving a head wound like that. Rock shuddered in the dread of it. Sword Man was hardly better off. Other than a large, torn gap through his power core and a laser-blackened cranium, his top half seemed barely damaged.**

**A deep thunk beside Mega Man startled him. It was Crystal, hauling out a clear plastic cylinder and letting it make all the noise it wanted to as it landed near Mega Man's feet. It was filled with all manner of metal bits, screws, bolts, and something that looked sort of like broken chunks of armor. The whole thing looked charred and black, scorched by some powerful flame.**

**"This is the main Gemini Man." Sonata enjoyed Mega Man's shock with a cruel smile. "Or all the parts of him that Treble could recover, anyway. Of course, some of those might be missing pieces to Sword Man's legs."**

**Having deposited that, Crystal quickly backed away from the metal bits rapidly. It suddenly made sense to Mega Man that she would scan the remains instead of eyeing them herself to make the reports to the authorities; the poor girl-bot never could deal too well with death. She nervously gestured over to the repair table where the robot master's detached legs lay resting, making well sure to keep her distance. Of course, Mega Man was only sure of their origin because of what Crystal told him; no one could look at the now ripped apart metal bars and plating and immediately tell what sort of wreck it was. Only close inspection revealed some of the intricate markings that still decorated the edges of some forlorn bits of plating still hanging on for dear life.**

**"It's easy to guess that he was attacked, not buried in the snow or caught in one of Dr. Cossack's security traps." Mega Man said, peering down at the damage. "From the damage to his legs, someone must have figured out that destroying his legs would have a very bad affect on his ability to fight. Once they were gone, defeating him wouldn't be a problem. They just had to shoot him through the chest. I just don't get what happened to Gemini Man, though. Why would they destroy him so...completely?"**

**Mega Man looked back over his shoulder at the bucket carrying the remains of the original Gemini Man. It pained him to see a robot in that horrible state, and though Crystal Bot tried to hide it, he knew it upset her too. She forced herself to be strong, but Mega Man could see her eyes averting from the remains, staring as hard as they could down at the floor.**

**"I...I don't know." she admitted. "I think he was harder to kill than Sword Man, and the guy that fought him had a hard time. He got so mad that he just tore him to shreds. That's my guess anyway. Angry people do bad things. It actually looks like they were fighting each other, because Sword Man has laser burns and Gemini Man got burned up."**

**"I see." Mega Man said. "Huh...it's weird...I don't think Sword Man killed Gemini Man. Sword Man controls fire, but how do you kill someone like that without actually hitting them with your sword? Gemini Man doesn't have any blade marks on him."**

**"It's definitely a plasma laser that got Sword Man, though." Crystal Bot countered. "Look at him. I mean, what robots have plasma lasers?"**

**"I know Signal Man did." Mega Man mentioned. "He's dead though, so...yeah."**

**Crystal Bot wondered. She knew what the Gemini laser could do. How different was Signal Man's? She glanced nervously at a still pondering Mega Man, trying to avoid a grin. Though it was illegal for any robot, including Mega Man, to hold onto enemy powers after that team was defeated. He didn't know that Crystal had kept copies of them, "just in case" was her excuse. She made a mental note to test and see what kind of burns the Signal shot dealt when Mega Man was gone.**

**"Hey, um, aren't the Cain-robots in the robot museum?"**

**Mega Man turned to Crystal Bot, curious. It was a good question. "I'm not sure. Maybe they do have them and it's just taking them longer to put their armor back together. Echelon Man by himself would take a pretty long time. Hey, Crystal, if you're finished with them, I'll take Gemini and Sword Man's remains and have them shipped to the museum. If you need Sword Man's CPU longer, you can hold onto that."**

**"Um, sure. Thanks. I'll get some crates."**

**The mention of Proto Man got a funny look from Bass, one that Mega Man couldn't immediately discern. It wasn't hate, or even disdain (or at least mostly not). It was an odd sort of curiosity, the kind which appears on those around you when they are uncertain about something, but especially about you. Noticing Mega Man's reaction, Bass allowed his face to go into a more casual look of indifference.**

**"Heh. I wish I could have seen when Proto Man worked for Wily." Bass said. "That would be weird as hell. It's hard to imagine Proto Man listening to anyone, especially an idiot like the old bastard."**

**The comment hit Mega Man like a lightning bolt, and not only because of Bass' blatant refusal to consider his creator in any sort of respectful light. He grimmaced at Bass, remembering that he wasn't dealing with a completely good guy here. **

**"How can you be curious about that?" Rock asked with a shudder. "I don't like to think about that at all."**

**Bass snorted, grinning with only a little maliciousness. Was that a little pity in his eyes? Or just contempt? "Yeah, I bet. Hell, I just don't see it. Proto Man being another of Wily's idiots just seems...stupid. How the hell does something like that happen? Imagine Blues following his orders. I guess he never tells you about the crimes he committed."**

**"I don't want to know." Mega Man scowled. "I love my brother no matter what. If you're trying to get me to leave, you're doing a good job."**

**The dark robot was just curious, but he stashed away this bit of information in his head for future reference. Having a reliable way to make Mega Man leave might prove handy. Rush must be less patient than his master; he left Bass on the end of the pier with a growl before pawing it back over to his master and standing by his feet.**

**"Relax." Bass knew he was pushing too far. Letting the truth slip out would just cause him trouble later on, and he couldn't risk doing it accidentally. "I'm sort of surprised that one of the higher ups hasn't made you turn him in yet."**

**"They know it's better that I don't get involved. I'm too close to the situation."**

**"Even if the crime is really bad?"**

**Mega Man paused. Why was Bass saying all of this? He didn't appear to be mocking him, or even that curious. He was...making conversation? And since when was the dark robot any good at hiding his emotions? Bass' visage was plain; it didn't convey any more information than would someone's face as they talked about the weather.**

**"I don't really think he could have done anything that bad." Mega Man said this with only a reluctant speed. "I know what kind of programmer Dr. Light was. Even misguided, Proto Man isn't the sort of person that would be cruel. He and Dr. Light...well, you know how they were, but it wasn't so bad between them that Blues wanted to give up on morality entirely. He still loved justice, and he's a good robot today. Dr. Light would be really proud of him. His past doesn't matter."**

**Now this got a strange look from Bass. His eyes widened then narrowed suddenly, as if critiquing what Mega Man had just said. In the end though, he just shrugged.**

**"Whatever." Bass turned back to watch the waters. "Treble says he still hasn't found anything more interesting than some golf clubs and a broken canoe."**

**Mega Man lifted his hand as if to get Bass' attention again, but **

"I don't much care for these scenes." GrimMoody explained. "They're just alternate pieces of the scene where Bass goes off to be told his assignment on Proto Man. I wasn't sure what angle I wanted to come out on for this chapter, so I wrote it out a couple of different ways before I got it more or less right. At first I had an idea to let there be an awkward scene between Mega Man and Crystal Bot, but there was no necessary information to convey in that sort of scene, so it turned out better to move on.

"As for the third, that's a little bit of scene I cut out when Mega Man and Bass were standing at the pier. As much as I liked that scene, it wasn't giving any new information about Proto Man and his relationship with his brother. Now, if I were to publish this as official fanfiction, I would edit back in a similar but better scene where Mega Man gets on the edge of finding out about Proto Man. So you guys, thoughts?"

There was a moment of pause as all of the characters onstage sat in thought. Most of them glared at GrimMoody, Blues and Roll in particular. Bass shifted uncomfortably and Crystal Bot stared at everyone else, but Mega Man shook his head.

"You do seem to enjoy torturing them." Crystal Man put a hand on his chin, elbow leaning on the armrest of his cushy chair. "Perhaps I am glad I spent most of these stories dead."

"You were going to be in it at one point, in the beginning." GrimMoody mentioned. "I was writing Crystal Bot in the first chapter of Okkusenman, and I was trying to figure out if you should be alive or not. I decided not to, as that's more dramatic."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Oh, Crystal Man, I have a question." Roll spoke up. "There's something I've always wanted to ask you. When we first discovered the upgrades you planned for Team 5 in Jewel Man's head, you also included plans to upgrade me with an energy sword. Why was that?"

"I am sorry, child." the shining man-bot shrugged. "But that must have been part of my later, more specific plans. My current CPU is merely a copy of my first, a mere backup made many years ago shortly after Wily's sixth scheme. While I began to build my daughter and make plans for Team 5 almost as soon as I became sentient, my plans for escaping Dr. Wily were not entirely formulated. I can only assume that my former self, whom Wily destroyed, had some specific reason for giving you this weapon. While I can't say for sure why, I can guess that perhaps I wanted you to replace your brother. At all times my plan required my daughter - I quite like 'Sonata', Forte, so I shall call her that - to aid Forte in destroying Rock. There was no way around this, so perhaps to satisfy my moral quandry at the earth losing its blue hero then I should set you in his place. Or maybe I simply wanted to force you to save my daughter in an emergency. One cannot say for certain."

"Where did you get the idea to make me?" Crystal Bot squealed.

"That was easy." Even though Crystal Man's mouth was covered, it was clear in his eyes that he smiled. "I needed someone to upgrade my team, and with the skills I acquired from Wily about robotic construction, I desired to build myself a child. I settled on a daughter because there were so many man-bots around already. My own small way of rebelling against Wily, I suppose."

"So is this how it's going to be, Moody?" Bass said in a bored voice. "You asking us a bunch of pointless, awkward questions?"

"Nope! I have some extra special guests, and I'm going to ask _them_ pointless and awkward questions!" GrimMoody gestured over to the side of the stage. "Our first guest today is the fanfiction net author Teribane, known to my Afterlife readers as Venom Pterosaur! Come on in, Teri!"

Another cushy red chair appeared in the middle of the stage. From the side of the stage, out came a large reploid: a brown, winged reptile. The metal pterodactyl slid across the upper stage, waving her excited arms back and forth as she slid.

"Hi everyone!" she squealed. "Thanks for ha-OOF!"

Teribane slipped, still sliding as she smacked into her chair. Up it flew, landing right down on her with a mighty PLOOMP and a pitiful whimper. The robots eyed each other. Mega Man uncertainly equipped his buster and got out of his chair.

"Um, I guess a clumsy Maverick is still a Maverick..." Rock bit his lip with doubt. "Um, freeze?"

Proto Man and Bass likewise began to get up from their chairs, but GrimMoody quickly waved them away. "No no, y'all sit down. She's not really a Maverick, she's an author on fanfiction net. I just based a Maverick on her in Afterlife. So sit down, already."

The robots sat down, but still warily eyed Teribane as she shoved away the chair and clambered up to her feet. Quickly she righted the chair and plopped herself in it, chuckling and pretending nothing happened.

"GrimMoody," Crystal Man lifted an eyebrow. "Why are you smiling?"

"Smiling? Me, what?" GrimMoody replied smoothly. "I'm not laughing at the misfortune of my guest. And I most certainly did not wax the floor twice before she got here. What a horrible thing to say, Crystal Man. Shame on you. Anyways, welcome to Bonus Features, Teribane!"

"Thanks for having me!" Teribane giggled, clapping her wings together.

"So, what'd ya think of my little story?"

"In general, it's one of the better Megaman fics I've read." the pterodactyl smiled. "In fact, one of the better fics I've read for any series. Lots of awesome little plot twists and enough random - or not so random - humour to keep me happy. I liked Crystal Bot quite a lot - one of the very, very few original characters who manage to be main characters, not Mary Sues, and actively likeable. So that was enjoyable."

"Aw, thank you!" Crystal Bot giggled. "I like you too!"

"Can you stop stroking Moody's ego already?" Proto Man muttered. "Just tell us what you really think. You can't possibly like everything about this story."

"Don't be so mean to Crystal Bot! She's cute! Besides, it's pretty rare that good OCs show up on fanfiction net." Teribane turned back to the author. "If there was anything that bothered me, it was showing up yourself to fix everything in the future. This is the kind of thing nearly all authors wish they could do with their fandoms, of course, but to me it seems slightly like cheating to actually DO it. Didn't make the series any less enjoyable, though."

"It was cheating." Moody admitted. "And that's the entire point. Haven't you ever read something where you just knew that the author had completely lost focus on the story? How they lose track over why people like their story? That guy that wrote the Drizzt Do'Urden series really went nuts toward the end of it. I couldn't read that series anymore because of how he treated the characters. It's much more forgivable when a video game producer does it, because the game entertainment value is still there, but I still feel really bad for the characters."

"Says the person that tells everyone's business." Proto Man said.

"Proto buddy, you're seriously getting cranky." GrimMoody folded her arms. "If you can't cheer up, then you're out of here."

"You promise?"

"Hush up." Moody quickly turned back to the guest author. "Anyway, next question. How do you see the Capcom series and characters differently from me?"

"First of all, my bad guys. I'm a sucker for evil characters and grey motives instead of black and white, so it's actually pretty difficult for me not to figure out motives for evil characters that make them sound perfectly reasonable."

"Yeah, I'm not much of a bad guy person." Moody nodded. "But to be fair, Wily was a pretty simple villain."

"I guess." Teribane shrugged. "Though I'd probably have come up with a more complex reason for him going evil. Also, for some reason my idea of the Megaman series is somehow limited to a single small country or even state sized area instead of the whole world. This makes quite a bit of absurd situations possible, such as Megaman bumping into a Wily bot shopping for milk."

Teribane giggled, lifting a little claw politely over her vicious fangs. Roll nervously scooted her chair away as Teribane continued. "Also I picture Protoman as a 'bot who really enjoys sneaking through air ducts. Especially overlord's fortress ducts."

With another burst of laughter from the dino-bot, Roll scooted her chair away even further. Still, the guest author continued. "And Bass carefully looking around to make sure he's alone, and then cuddling Treble and calling him painfully cute nicknames. And so on. I should stop rambling now."

"I don't think the police would allow Dr. Wily to just go shopping." Crystal Man noted. "The manager and customers would be so frightened, that they would probably just call the police on him."

"I definitely don't crawl through vents." Proto Man said. "That's something only a human could get away with, as I'm made of metal and that would just make too much noise. Crawlspace, on the other hand, is a lot more convenient. Except for all the loose plaster." Blues turned to Bass and put on his most devious smirk. "Though I'm sure your third comment is a whole lot more acurate."

Bass glowered at Proto Man, but his technician responded instead with a mighty giggle. "Aw, he doesn't call Treble baby names. I always get in trouble when I call him Trebby. But they do wrestle and play all the time. It's so cute! Bass pets him, and pretends to growl at him, and tells him secrets all the time!"

"And you wonder why I don't tell those secrets to you, blabbermouth." Bass exposed a fang as he glared sidelong at Crystal Bot. "And for your information, I'm not 'playing' with Treble. I'm training myself to fight close range mechaniloids so that I can't be sneak attacked."

"Whatever!" Crystal Bot leaned forward, looking past her boss and toward Teribane. "He's totally playing with Treble! You should see them sometime. It's so adorable!"

"You're awful." Mega Man shook his head. "You shouldn't be telling that kind of story about your boss. It's only normal to play with a dog anyway."

"Oh, so you're saying you cuddle up with Rush and call _him_ cute nicknames?" Crystal Bot teased.

"Buh? What...I...no, no, not like that." Mega Man fidgeted. "I just play catch with him. And soccer. He likes soccer. Next question."

"Alright, alright." Moody chuckled. "So Teri, how's about you tell us your theory about what you think happened between the classic series and the X series?"

"Well, the generic, automatically-comes-to-mind response involves Zero slaughtering everything." Teri played a bit with her claws. "If I was to really sit down and think of something original, though, it would probably involve a whole bunch of crises that piled up to take all the robots out one by one. Both small stuff, like a reactor or such blowing up to take out a single robot, or larger scale stuff, like a petition by panicked humans that would end up causing several robots to be deactivated and destroyed... And some of them would set others in motion, of course, other than taking out a robot or two. Something very complicated and intricate."

"That sounds political, and kind of depressing." GrimMoody frowned. "But it could be really good, if you set down and wrote it all out."

"It does sound depressing, doesn't it? If I had to choose only one type of fic to write, it would be humour, since that's the most enjoyable for me to both scribble and read. But humour doesn't come very easily to me, so I mostly write depressing angsty stuff. Which is strange, because, well, I'm not a particularly depressed person. I'm just good at it for no apparent reason."

"You should be the one named GrimMoody." Mega Man said. "You're way more depressing than our author."

"Don't say that." Roll objected. "You weren't the one that had to spend the future in a dystopia."

"Oh yeah...hee hee..." GrimMoody chuckled with glee. "I did torment you, didn't I? So, let me ask you guys a question. Do y'all ever read fanfiction net stories? I mean, we're all working hard out there to entertain."

"No." Crystal Man said. "I prefer nonfiction, and admittedly, I find it very difficult to read a fanfiction where I am not involved, unless it is particularly good. I did read one amusing tidbit where I helped Bass create his own scheme against Mega Man using sock puppets, and that story was somewhat amusing."

"Sock puppets?" Bass snorted. "How was that supposed to help me defeat Rock?"

"It wasn't quite that. You wanted to outdo Wily and come up with a scheme that would do better than him."

"Did I?"

"I won't spoil the story for the readers." Crystal Man replied. "But you wouldn't be entirely unhappy with how it turned out. I'll say that much."

"Oh no, don't say that." Mega Man chuckled. "I'm not dead in the end, am I?"

"No, it was a humor based story."

"Well, anyway," Mega Man continued. "I'm sorry, but I'm usually too busy to read much. When I do it's usually sports history or newspapers. The only fanfiction net stories I read are usually ones that use my netnavi counterpart. I like those stories the best!"

"I just like gardening and cooking magazines." Roll admitted. "I know it sounds a bit stereotypical, but I like them! I'm going to be redoing the garden in the house soon."

"I definitely don't read fanfiction net stories." Proto Man said, a little too firmly. "There's just too much slash fiction these days, and I'm not into that."

"Same here." Bass said in bored tones. "I've tried to read some, but most of the time writers like to make me date Roll. I'm a robot, first and foremost, and even if I were a human, don't you think I'd date someone who _isn't _pretty much Rock's identical twin? No way in hell. And yeah, Proto Guy's right. There's so much slash...ugh."

"People are silly." Mega Man got a little uncertain. "But what do you guys mean by 'slash' fiction?"

"Don't worry about it!" Proto Man said quickly. "Don't worry at all."

"Hm?" Bass smirked, hooking up his wireless connection to the internet. "Hey Rock, do you know what yaoi is?"

"No...why?"

"Oh nothing." Bass sent Mega Man a link through his comm system. "Hey, I found a story on the internet you'll like. Why don't you read it?"

"Okay. Thanks Bass." Mega Man checked out the link. "Oh this is nice - wait, what? UGH! BASS! Wait, I'm doing THAT to...PROTO MAN? Ugh, gah...that's so WRONG! I am definitely deleting this story from my brain!"

As Mega Man frantically deleted the past few seconds from his mind, Proto Man let loose a wild glare in Bass' direction, none the weakened for coming from behind a visor. "Will you stop trying to corrupt my brother?"

"No."

"I thought as much." Proto Man said. "But if those stories are so bad, then why haven't you deleted them from your memory?"

"Simple. So I remember not to read them again." Bass turned to Mega Man again. "Hey Rock, there's this really great story on fanfiction net that you should read."

"Oh really? Thanks Bass - GAAAAAHH! BASS!"

Proto Man's scowl turned into a beast lunging after Forte, and he equipped his left hand into a buster. "Stop doing that. Now."

"Oh? And you're prepared to make me?" Bass pulled out his double busters. "Let's just see about that."

"No no, not on my stage you're not." GrimMoody stubbornly insisted, gesturing for them to stay seated. "Now let's just cool down with a nice deleted scene, okay? Hit it, Auto!"

**"Um, they've got him behind a secret panel down the long north hall. I can go with them if you want."**

**"No, just transmit the location to them. I want my heir with me so that she can learn how to deal with opposition."**

**That simple statement warmed Crystal right down to her toes. Her smile and sweet, bubbly laughter flowed as free as a spring. The transmission was quickly sent, and Crystal Bot almost skipped as she followed Dr. Wily to the office. **

**"Crystal Bot, evil villains don't giggle."**

**"Sorry! Hee hee, oops!"**

**Dr. Wily waved to his robots, and Metal, Wood, Crash, and Algorhythm Man followed him for his "little conference" with Dr. Cain. Frantic Man joined as well. For a moment, Crystal Bot was too happy to notice he was staring at her. However, once glance in his direction made it suddenly a lot easier to not giggle. He seemed so serious. Outwardly he was no different than at any other time, as he had nothing to properly convey emotions, but somehow something seemed off with him. Crystal Bot scowled and lifted her head. She was an evil villain, and who cared what Frantic Man thought?**

**"Where are they?" Dr. Wily screamed at Dr. Cain. "Get the scanners on!"**

**If Wily really wanted his hostage prisoner to be the one to work the scanners, then he probably shouldn't have shoved Cain aside and started on the controls himself. Cain tried to get away, but Heat Man snatched his arms and held him still. **

_**" - Dr. Wily! - " **_**Epic Man's voice came over the comm system. **_**" - It's too late! They enemy is already in the building, and several of our robots are down. - "**_

**"We'll just have to set this pretty little base to self-destruct then." Wily turned to his prisoner. "Cain, if you value your face then you will tell me the password to blow this cave of yours to bits."**

**"This base doesn't have a self-descruction capability." Cain protested. "And even if it did, I'm not wasting the twelve years I spent working on-"**

**"Heat Man, shut him up." Wily went right on back to the computer.**

**"Heh, sure." **

**Heat Man promptly tugged on Dr. Cain's ear, using enough force to risk tearing the cartilage. Fortunately for Dr. Cain, he was smart enough not to scream. He bore the pain in silence, grimacing terribly until the lighter-bot finally let go. **

**"Ah-ha, here's something I can use." Dr. Wily turned on the comm to signal Epic Man. "Delay them as much as you can. Activate all of my robots that Dr. Cain here so graciously rebuilt for me."**

_**" - I'll do that, but I need a password to activate them. - "**_

**Wily turned to Heat Man and the hapless Nikola. "Heat Man..."**

**Heat Man was enjoying this far too much. He especially enjoyed the little squeal that Dr. Cain gave when Heat Man did barely more than touch his sore ear.**

**"It's TY7900." Cain gasped. "No-"**

**The lighter-bot didn't wait for orders this time. He simply smacked Dr. Cain in the head, knocking him out cold. He let the programmer slip to the floor then commenced ignoring him.**

**"Epic Man, did you hear that?"**

_**" - I did. I'm activating the robots now. The enemy is nearly at the main lab, so I'll send them there first. Also, four of them are destroying Dr. Cain's boats and his aircraft. They plan on cutting off your escape. - "**_

**"Let me worry about them." Wily said. "You just delay them as long as possible."**

**Switching off the computer, an impatient Wily turned to his forces, the robots that were still in the main lab with him. "Wood Man! Bubble Man! The both of you will bring Zero to my capsule now. Heat Man, you come with us. Psycho Man, you eliminate them once they get in here."**

**"Yes, my master, I'll obey!" Psycho Man sang. "But I like killing anyway!"**

**Though he was in a rush, Dr. Wily lifted a wrinkled eyebrow at the killer clown-bot. He looked with disgust at the fallen form of Dr. Cain. "Seriously, you programmed this? **_**This**_**? Ugh."**

**"Dr. Cain upgraded me just in case I should happen to meet you again. This time, I am much more powerful than before! I can even destroy you! Oh, sweet irony! I am the new, the improved...TOP MAN!"**

**Bass was stunned as the orange, spinning robot twirled his way past the corner, skating about the hall with more grace than Charlie Chaplain on the wheels. He was indeed Top Man, everything from his top head to his skate boots. His armor appeared thicker, but other than that, he was still the graceful orange toy-bot. Top Man skated as near as he dared to Bass before coming to a stop, performing his most graceful of bows. **

**There was silence for a moment. Bass' mouth wrinkled up, and his lip began to twitch. And then the dam broke.**

**"AHAHAHAHAHAA!" Bass exploded, trying his hardest to hold his sides in. He shook with mirth, unable to keep control. "Dr. Cain is a GENIUS! Hahaha! He's so smart! He figured out a way to get me to **_**laugh**_** myself to death! I can't stop! AHAHAHAAA HA! This is too good! I'm gonna get killed by Top Man here! Haha, someone save me! AHAHAHAAAHAAA!"**

**"I'm improved!" Top Man insisted. "No really! I'm quite better now! You'll see if you fight me!"**

**"I totally believe you...NOT! BWAHAAHAHAA!"**

**"What's so funny?"**

**Crystal Bot went up the hall, still leaning heavily on her left leg. Not even an interruption like Crystal could get him to stop, and Bass continued laughing. He tried to make himself stop long enough to speak to his technician.**

**"His powers of pathetic are too much for me!" Forte oozed sarcasm. "You've got to fight for me!"**

**Crystal jumped back, hesitant. "Um...I don't know...oh, hey, it's Top Man. Hiya, Toppy! I like you."**

**Top Man sighed, though he cheered a bit, seeing her. "Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm not intimidating anyone today."**

**"You don't have to." Crystal said, smiling in her cute way. "You're really nice. Not everybody has to be scary to be fun!"**

**"We really must fight, though. I am your enemy."**

**"Yeah, I know. Forte-kun says. He's kind of a meanie sometimes." Crystal Bot approached Top Man. "Like this one time when he wouldn't dance with me at a ball. He didn't let me dance with Dr. Cossack either. I got all dressed up too!"**

**"Really? Sounds cute."**

**"It was. Hey, Toppy, I know we have to fight, but...can you dance with me? I really, really want to!"**

**"Why certainly, darling! You wouldn't want to dance with Bass anyway. I'm sure he's nothing more than an absolute oaf on the dance floor, and he only told you no so that you wouldn't find out."**

**Top Man winked at the completely horrified Bass. Next he bowed to the girl-bot, then reached out his hand. Giggling, Crystal Bot took it and was instantly swept away. She hardly noticed that her leg wasn't on tightly enough; Top Man was the perfect dance leader, even humming a bit of waltz song that he knew as he spun Crystal Bot around.**

**"Hee, hee, is Forte looking?"**

**"Why, yes he is." Top Man winked in Bass' direction. "He looks like he's going to explode."**

**In all fairness, he did. No amount of facepalming could express Bass' disgust as he stood there dumbfounded. **

**"Aw, I guess I better fight now." Crystal Bot said, a little disappointed. "Oh well."**

_**ThwooONK!**_

**Top Man looked down, instantly, and too late, realizing his mistake. He was too close to Crystal Bot, and there in his chest was a blue crystal, embedded completely through his power core. His wavering lips uttered a few sounds, but that was all he could do before collapsing to the floor at Crystal Bot's feet.**

**She grinned over him. "Oh, so I can generate crystals even if somebody else is in the way. Good to know."**

**"Did you have to do that?" Bass growled. "And where's everyone else?"**

**"Yes, I did have to do that!" Crystal huffed, trying to resist stomping her foot. "They're coming. They sent me ahead to help you with the computer doors."**

**"Then let's get going. Don't slow me down!" Bass dashed past her and the fallen Top Man. "Let's go!"**

**"Wait, you're not going to take the top spin?"**

**Bass turned back long enough to glare. He looked like he was going to retch.**

**"Ha, I was just joking." Crystal giggled. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"**

_**I really, really wish I could absorb powers too!**_

**Bass didn't even look at him. Thankfully Gyro Man attacked, ending Algorhythm Man's annoying yells and beginning an even noiser fight. Forte instead joined Crystal Bot over at the panel, which he figured must have superior coding to the door they came in. It was taking Crystal much longer to hack into it. She turned at Bass and smiled, then glanced up at the robots fighting overhead.**

**"Oooh, I like watching Algorhythm Man fight." she said. "He's so shiny, 'n so are his busters. Hey look, there's everybody else."**

**Bass looked back where Crystal was pointing. Sure enough, Wave Man, Gravity Man, and Star Man were all entering, not looking too worse for wear. Bass was impressed, a little. He expected at least one of them to be missing an arm. As he looked, Algorhythm Man slammed to the ground right in front of him, his glowing metal panels completely without light.**

**"Eh, that was quick." Bass noted. "He sure sucks."**

**"I'm just that skilled!" Gyro Man boasted as he lowered himself to the floor. "Now how's that door coming, Crystal B?"**

**"It's coming..." Crystal always liked being called "Crystal B", but she didn't giggle this time. She had to concentrate. "Dr. Cain sure is overzealous with all the security around here. This door is the hardest! It'll be just a minute..."**

"Note that these are the better deleted scenes of that chapter." GrimMoody rubbed the back of her head, wincing at the memory. "I actually rewrote this chapter several times with a bunch of equally boring what nots. Eventually I had to simplify the whole thing, and these are the best bits that didn't make it. The first was just a first draft of when Dr. Wily first arrives in Cain's cave base, and while it's okay, it's just nothing special. And I switched around the situation so that Crystal Bot wasn't following Dr. Wily into Dr. Cain's office. There was nothing for her to do in there, and she had to go bring Zero to Dr. Wily anyway.

"As for the second, that's Dr. Wily's reaction to Mega Man and company's attack. It wasn't strictly necessary and added nothing to the plot. I figured it would be more exciting narrative if we didn't know what Dr. Wily wanted to do anyway. The third is actually a scene I was really, really sad to cut. The trouble was, Bass' confrontation with Algorythym Man was far more necessary to the plot, and having both confrontations lined up next to each other was just too much. Besides, I very much doubt that Bass would just stand there and let Crystal Bot dance with Top Man. He'd definitely either yell at Crystal Bot or just shoot Top Man with impatience. Isn't that right, Bass?"

"Sure is." Bass nodded. "Hell, it was annoying enough when she danced with him right in the middle of a battle. Besides, I'm not going to give Sonata a dang fighting lesson right when I'm trying to find Wily."

"I thought as much." GrimMoody turned to the guest author. "Okay, so how do you like those deleted scenes?"

"Evil villains do giggle." Teribane grinned. "Also I kind of wish that scene had been included. Just because. And Psycho Man rhymed!" Teribane clapped with delight. "Perfect embodiment of a crazy killer robot right there."

"He's been rhyming since Okkusenman." Bass said. "Where have you been?"

"Bass, hush." GrimMoody ordered. "Please go on, Teri."

"Okay. Well," Teribane peeked back up at the projector screen. "That third scene was sort of adorable and even reminded me a bit of the Christmas truces from WWII because I'd been reading about them recently - up until Crystal Bot stabbed him with a crystal." The author wagged a disdainful finger at the female shiny-bot. "For shame, Crystal Bot, for shame. If you're going to stab someone in the back after being all friendly with them, you have to at least do it with a really horrible pun somewhere. Practically a requirement."

"But I don't like puns!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "I'm no good at them! Um, I guess I could have said, um...um...'do you like your death nice and shiny'? Aw, you think of a pun if you want one so bad!"

"My dear Teribane!" A loud voice cut off Teribane's response. "Why didn't someone tell me that she was here?"

Skating in from stage left, in twirled an orange blur. It zoomed to center stage before stopping and revealing itself to everyone as Top Man. He bowed gracefully to the camera before skating to Teribane's chair, bowing and taking one of Teribane's claws.

"My dear Teribane," he said lovingly. "Ever since the first of these silly stories of Moody's began and I heard the sweetest words from your lovely mouth, er...oh dear."

Top Man turned to GrimMoody. "Um, Moody, could you do something about this? I'm not particularly comfortable talking to a reploid, your creation or no."

"I guess that's alright." Moody lifted her hands. "Notedly, since Teribane wishes to remain anonymous, I'm just going to make up the first thing that comes to mind. I don't actually know what she really looks like. So, please stand up, Teri."

Top Man politely stepped away Teri nervously pulled herself off of the couch. The Pteri-author clicked her claws together. "Um, don't I get a say in this?"

"No." GrimMoody replied. "Of course not. Alley-oop!"

With the flick of her fingers, GrimMoody gestured oddly at the guest author. All of a sudden, the pteradactyl found herself surrounded by a glowing aura of light (the crystal robots oohed and aahed appreciatively). At once, all dinosaur features disappeared. Her skin turned a normal sort of shade, if tanned a bit and dotted with freckles. Her hair turned a deep jet black, falling over her shoulders. She wore an orange tea dress, one with a square neckline and a gently poofed skirt that went down to the knee and was propped up but a couple of petticoats. Little white lace gloves decorated each hand, and two orange high heels gave Teri an additional inch of height. She looked down at her new appearance uncertainly, biting her lip.

But Top Man was absolutely certain, and quite a bit appreciative. "Oh...my...word! What a lovely darling!" Top Man quickly resumed his position by Teribane's side and kissed her hand. "How wonderful! Oh, orange is certainly your color. You look absolutely ravishing!"

"I...didn't quite expect that kind of reaction." GrimMoody winced. "That's dang creepy. Give the guy one positive review, and this is what happens. Um...Teri...I can change you again if you want..."

"No! No no, of course not." Top Man couldn't look away from Teribane, not even to speak to Moody. "Miss Teribane, to the delight of your ears I have composed a poem. Would you...I mean, could you indulge me in a quick recitation?"

"Please no," Bass groaned. "Moody, stop that guy!"

"What's wrong with Top Man's poetry?" Mega Man looked around at the other robots. "I've heard he writes a lot of it."

"That's the problem." Proto Man explained. "I take it you didn't read the third Bonus Features. It's...not good poetry."

"Hush!" Top Man hissed. "And anyway I wasn't asking you, I was asking Teribane."

"Um, well," Teribane looked down at her outfit awkwardly - none of Top Man's comments had satisfied her concerns. "But I never wear dresses or high heels. How do I function in these...? Okay, how about this. I'll listen to it if GrimMoody agrees to poof me into something more normal. Like, jeans or something."

"What? You don't like tea dresses?" A stunned GrimMoody stepped back from Teribane suspiciously. "But...everybody likes tea dresses. TEA DRESS!"

GrimMoody pointed at Roll, and poof! Roll was instantly in a red tea dress trimmed with lace, topped with a straw hat.

"TEA DRESS!"

The finger of GrimMoody wandered to the other side of the stage, and another poof! Crystal Bot suddenly wore her own blue tea dress, but hers included layers of tulle and several green flowers printed on the waist. The tech-bot stared awkwardly at her elbow length gloves, but GrimMoody no longer paid attention. She turned to Bass, and with an awful grin and one finger flicking wildly, she stared deep into Bass' now terrified eyes.

"Teeaaaaaa..." Moody said slowly. "Drrrrrreeee - "

"Get that finger away from me!" Bass double jumped behind his chair and activated his buster. "Or else!"

"Aw, spoilsport." GrimMoody pouted.

"Okay, how about this." Teribane said, sitting back down. "I'll listen to the poem if GrimMoody agrees to poof me into something more normal. Like, jeans or something. And then if the poem is really all that horrible this time Bass gets to whack you upside the head."

"Maybe I like Teribane after all." Bass grinned, coming back around to his seat. "One smack coming right up!"

"Oh come on," Teribane protested. "It can't be worse than all that really bad fanfiction out there I've stumbled upon... right?"

Seeing Teribane's slightly worried look, Top Man immediately forced a dismissive laugh. "Oh no, my dear. For you I have summoned the greatest of my poetic powers!"

"Um..." Teribane glanced toward GrimMoody. "So, um, I said you have to poof me into something normal first."

"FINE." GrimMoody sighed and clapped her hands. "Poof."

Instantly Roll's and Crystal Bot's outfits turned back into their respective red dress and cyan dress with green cloak. While Teribane remained in human form with jet black hair, she was now transformed into jeans, a green shirt, and an orange sweater wrap sweater. Teri glanced at her feet with relief. Green sneakers with orange laces weren't exactly her thing, but they weren't heels either.

"Ah, much better." the guest author looked at Top Man, trying to hide her reluctance. "Well, I guess you can begin now."

"Very well!" Top Man cleared his throat. "I call this one The Eyes of Teribane!

"Tylterra, so lovely, so wise,  
Tylterra with ever perceptive eyes.  
Will not be decieved by color or trick,  
Not at all hindered by walls of brick,  
And sees beyond the lair of the lie."

"I don't get it." Crystal Bot scratched her head. "What does that mean?"

"Simple." Proto Man didn't know if he wanted to laugh or gag. "It means that Top Man says she's perceptive because she complimented him in a review."

"I don't remember that."

"It was in the first story."

"Oh yeah...Forte didn't let me read those..."

"And you're still not allowed." Bass said. "So Teribane, do I get to smack him or what?"

"Actually...I've heard worse." Teribane gently patted Top Man on the head. "So no smacking."

"Dang." Bass slumped back in his chair. "You got my hopes up."

"You...don't like it?" Top Man's lip trembled just a bit.

"It's just alright." Teribane shrugged. "It's not really as creepy as everyone made me think it was going to be."

"Then I must improve it!" Top Man gallantly lifted a fist in the air. "I will work day and night, night and day, until my powerful prose is exhausted and my ink pen has run dry!"

"UGH. Creepy cheese. If you're through being a creeper, Toppy, go ahead and ske'daddle." GrimMoody shoved Top Man off the stage. "Go on, Auto! Put up another deleted scene!"

**Mega Man, however, was as blue as his armor. His sadness weighed him down, but he coldly resisted it as he went over to the comm station. Pausing at the controls, Rock turned around. He knew his sister was following him, and he was going to have to answer some questions. He waved Auto over.**

**"Okay, I want you to hear this from me," Rock said. "And not somewhere else. Proto Man...during the Gamma crisis he killed a security guard named Richard Copenhagen."**

**Auto gasped and Roll paled. Not out of earshot, Crystal Bot shuddered. All three knew what it meant for a robot to be guilty of that kind of crime. Blues evaded the authorities most of his life, but this made it worse for him, even in countries such as Japan where Proto Man's support was the strongest.**

**Mega Man nodded at them. "It's true. Either that or Proto Man just confessed to it for some reason...but...I don't think that's the case. Bass had some security footage of that night, and apparently both Shadow Man and Hard Man were there. If we can capture them, we're going to need to surrender those memories to the REA."**

**Roll found herself grateful that those two robots weren't inside the lab. If they were, Rock would make himself watch their memory footage. Roll knew he would, though it would only torture him. **

**"What are we going to do?" Roll asked. **

**"Well, first I'm going to tell Reyes that I know." Mega Man placed a hand on the control panel. "I don't think he'll let me go after Blues, but if Blues comes here again, we're going to have to turn him in. We can't shelter him any longer. Not from this." Mega Man grew more somber, drawing in a stiff breath. He'd made his decision. As much as it pained him, justice needed to be done. "He can't run away from his past anymore."**

**Roll took Rock's hand. He smiled at his sister, but the smile held no warmth. It hurt like nails to force a smile on his face, and he dropped it shortly thereafter. Roll didn't let go of his hand. Rock glanced over at Auto, but the green repair-bot only stared at the blue tarp to the left. Mega Man knew what it covered and sighed. Proto Man wasn't going to be around for Christmas.**

**"Everyone, I know how bad this is, but we're going to have to continue living." Rock said. "As much as this situation hurts, we have to survive. Don't grieve too much now. Proto Man can tell right from wrong, and he'll know what to do."**

**"Are you sure?" Roll found herself asking. "If he..."**

**Rock shook his head. "He's bound to be pretty emotional right now, but I trust Blues enough to know he hasn't forgotten everything he's learned since we met." Mega Man might not have sounded confident, but he truly believed in his words. Patting it gently, Mega let go of Roll's hand and turned to the other girl-bot, calling out, "Crystal Bot, are you alright?"**

**"I'm fine...I think." Crystal looked up from her work on Bass, shy as she looked up at him. "It's just too weird. I didn't think Proto Man was like that."**

**"None of us did." Mega Man said. "Now please, everyone, go back to work. I'll handle as much of this as I can."**

**No one was really sure what he meant by handle. They went back to work nonetheless. They were going to have to get all those robot masters out of there somehow. Crystal Bot hurried along as she got to working on her boss, but she couldn't help taking a moment to watch as Mega Man started moving the controls at the comm station. Rock dialed in the numbers slowly. This was an inevitable call, one that Mega Man dreaded more than he could say. **

**Tim Reyes appeared on the screen. Seeing Mega Man's expression, he immediately grew concerned. "What's going on, Rock?"**

**"I just found out about my brother." he said, keeping himself remarkably under control. "Why exactly didn't you tell me about the Gamma situation?"**

**Reyes tensed, and the wrinkles on his brow got deeper. "You know why we couldn't tell you. It would be too hard on you. We wanted him taken in and all of this dealt with as quietly as possible. You would be informed if Proto Man were caught, but it seems Bass couldn't handle the assignment. How exactly did you find out?"**

**"It was a zip drive mix up." Rock's stare grew more firm, and his fingers tightened around the keyboard. "I have all of Proto Man's criminal records, and he now knows I do. He...didn't take it well."**

**"Do we have any assurance that we'll see him again?"**

**"...No."**

**The human swore, glaring off to the side before focusing again on Mega Man. "Just great. We give Bass one little assignment and he screws it up like this. And he even asked for early release from probation. But no, he had to give Proto Man one last week of freedom when he could have just-"**

**"I know what happened." Mega Man darkened as he spoke, and a determination strengthened his voice. "Bass gave Proto Man that week to help me defeat Dr. Cain. He had the best interests of Monstropolis in mind. On the other hand, if REA had simply told me what was going on, I could have spoken to Proto Man before all this and talked to him reasonably. I could have talked him into turning himself in, which it seems he was half ready to do in the first place. He needed my help and understanding, and quite frankly the REA is to blame for not allowing him to have these. But what's done is done, so let's start thinking about what we're going to do next."**

**"Alright," Reyes was hardly happy being talked down to, but he just folded his arms. "What exactly can we do next?"**

**"I'm not sure, but since Proto Man confessed to this we know that a part of him wanted to make this right somehow. When he found out I knew the truth about him, he freaked out, but sooner or later he's going to remember the kind of person he's become. He's not Wily's robot, and he's fought for good for many years now. It stands a chance that he'll come back."**

**"How much of a chance?"**

**"I don't know." Mega Man admitted. "But Proto Man is not the type of guy to disappear forever. He's going to show up sooner or later. I don't know if he'll ever trust me again."**

**Reyes blinked. "What exactly happened when he found out?"**

**Mega Man sighed, and he converted his finger into a zip drive to plug it into the computer. "I'll send you a report of that now. Both Bass' memories and mine are included."**

**"Alright." Reyes' hands went off screen as he confirmed the arrival of the message. "I'll contact you again when I have orders from the REA. For now, I want to know how much of a threat your brother could possibly be right now."**

**"I don't know that either, but right now I think if he does anything horrible it would only be to either Bass or himself." **

**Even as he said this, Mega Man paled. It was a new thought that Proto Man might attempt to kill himself, and to that point Mega Man hadn't thought it through. Now that it was in his thoughts, it seemed like the most likely option of all. How could Proto Man live with himself now that those he cared about most knew his darkest secrets. That is, if he still cared about the brother that had tried to arrest him.**

**"I can see you're going to need some time." Reyes said. "I'd rather not involve you in trying to find Proto Man, but it may in the end come to that."**

**"Oh, um, I understand." Mega Man answered, thankful in the change of topic. "But there's something else. Proto Man is a part of my family, and as such I feel responsible for what he's done. I want to do something to reach out to Richard Copenhagen's family."**

**Behind him, the sound of Crystal Bot's wrench echoed in the lab as she dropped it. Roll **

**It was a calm day in the labs. Roll had dusting to do, and while normally she didn't go through the lab, she felt like it for once. It would be nice to see how Mega Man was getting on. That and it was a shorter path to the storage room, so once she was done with dusting she could go right to mopping. Roll hadn't mopped the lab in forever, and she wanted to make sure it got done at some point. Fighting crime wasn't a job that kept one's feet clean.**

**Roll opened the door to the lab, contentedly looking around. It was pretty much empty, especially since Gyro Man had taken Stone Man back up to the space station for repairs. In fact, the only person in the lab was Crystal Bot, who peeped over her shoulder as she noticed Roll coming in.**

**"Oh, hi Sona-chan." Roll said. "Where is everyone?"**

**"Rock and Forte are out talking to the police and doing hero stuff." Crystal Bot replied. "Proto's never here, and Auto went out to go talk to some people and see if he couldn't collect his insurance on the shop. He'll probably get big bucks."**

**"Alright then. I'm glad you're here. It gets so lonely in this place sometimes."**

**"Yeah, I can see that."**

**Crystal Bot pulled a disc out from the computer and stashed it in her hood. That complete, she turned to Roll. Though she had been holding it all along, only then did the housekeeper-bot see that she was holding a large, pink energy crystal. It was sort of thin, like a small sword.**

**"Be careful with that around the computers." Roll paid it no mind as she went along to the other side of the lab. "Auto says it could be damaging to hard drives."**

**"He's definitely right. It does really bad things to hard drives...like the ones on robots."**

**Without warning, Crystal Bot snatched Roll's arm and tugged her nearly off her feet. Roll tried to remember what to do when someone grabs you like that, but at once every thought of martial arts she knew was blasted out of her mind by the crystal energy. The electric pink surrounded her and for several seconds that pink was all that she could see.**

**"Hey, Roll-**_**chan**_**," Crystal spat. "Remember last year when I said that I'm not your friend? You should've listened."**

**Pink. Roll fell limp, almost settling to the floor but for the arm that Crystal Bot held. The Light-bot, now safely unconscious, was pulled over Crystal's shoulder. With a clap of her hands, Roll's assistant-bot Dub appeared from out of nowhere, clutching at his mistress and using four of his eight metal arms to secure Roll on his back. Bruce flew down from the windows above the lab and rested on a very confident Crystal Bot's shoulder. She smirked a very evil smirk, letting the line of her lips cut a very perilous angle.**

**"I'm Sinistra the evil!" she exclaimed, sending a shimmer through the globes built into her body. The light winked out quickly in a brilliant flash, quite the anime finish. "And I'm not going to let this opportunity go to waste!"**

**With that, Wave Man and Splash Woman disappeared into the blue, and the two robots left behind started to pick up their hanging jaws. Dive Man glanced at Pirate, surprised to see that the rebellious guy didn't seem too disheartened. Pirate Man grinned a bit at Dive Man, but it was admittedly a sour expression.**

**"Well, let's call this one a draw 'tween us two, shall we?" Pirate Man chuckled. "Or a victory for Lady Splash. She pegged me right. I don't think I can stand another day living for a master! The open waters call, a more faithful female than I'm afraid the lady will ever be. Bah, if only Dr. Light's lab had any gold in it! Then this venture might've been worth something."**

**"Pirate Man," Dive said slowly, still staring at the waters where Splash Woman had gone. "If you promise not to come here again for six months, I won't hunt you down and make sure you get reprogrammed into a housekeeper robot."**

**"Bah! What makes ye think ye can even attempt such a thing?" Pirate Man snorted with contempt. "But eh, I might as well take the deal. I'm going to spend at least a year keeping quiet and counting my gold. Ocean waters sing the sweet song of freedom, and that's a tune our fair merrow knows not."**

**"You're lying. You're just going to wait until I'm not suspecting anything and then strike." Dive Man got into a fighting stance, readying his dive bombs. "That's enough talk from you. Get out."**

"Those are from a lot of scattered chapters." Mega Man noticed. "Don't you usually go in order?"

"Yeah," Grimm said. "But I didn't write this story in order, sometimes, and I'm only including the more interesting deleted scenes. I had a lot of meh ones this go round that are basically lame versions of what I posted. As for these, the first is a nice scene of people reacting to the revelation of Proto Man's past. It's an okay scene, but it's not really necessary to the plot and doesn't add anything. On the off chance I get this story into an official fanfiction, I might consider adding it back, if nothing else but to add more of Mega Man's perspective. I do consider this scene to have happened, I just didn't show it.

"The second I definitely could not use. I wanted to tempt the audience into thinking that Crystal Bot did betray her friends, but this just goes too far. I didn't want her to be liable to the authorities for a harsh crime, and this is just a set up right here to get CB arrested for kidnapping, and she would be guilty too. As for the last, it's a cute addition to the Splash Woman scene, but I just had no clue how I was going to end it. It wasn't supposed to be a large part of the chapter, so I couldn't focus on it too much."

"I'm really glad you didn't go with that second one." Crystal Bot shuddered. "I would never be that mean to Roll-chan!"

"So you'd be just mean enough to put a second set of AI into me, drag me into an alley and pretend you captured me?" Roll teased.

"Hey, that was all to save your life, and it worked." Crystal Bot glanced at the chair next to her. "Um, stop looking at me like that, Daddy..."

Crystal Man said nothing. He blinked a couple of times, then finally turned away. "Hm? What's wrong with Blues?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Proto Man looked sick. He was curled up in his chair, head in his hands. Upon noticing everyone looking at him, he let out a long, drawn out breath.

"Moody." he managed, almost gasping out his words. "Please...don't show those scenes..."

Everyone instantly knew what he was talking about. And in the next instant, Teribane and his siblings had him surrounded. Mega Man firmly grabbed his arm, intently and earnestly looking into his brother's visor.

"Hey, stop that now." Rock said gently. "We all know your past, and we don't judge you for it. It's done and over with, and nobody cares about it. It doesn't define you anymore, if it ever did."

"Yeah," added Teribane. "Besides, learning about it doesn't make everyone hate you. It makes us like you even more!"

With that, the guest author promptly hugged him tightly around the neck from behind the chair, and Proto Man smiled a little, though awkwardly.

"Hey Moody..." he said. "Could you do something and distract everyone? I sort of regret calling attention to myself now."

"Okay. It's about time I brought in our next guest. You guys get to your seats, alright? Okay, now everybody, please welcome our next author, ThatFanFicGuy!"

The robots and Teribane politely applauded as a young man, dressed in a black suit with sunglasses and a stylish fedora. Before sitting in a suddenly appearing red chair next to Teribane, he walked over to GrimMoody and shook her hand. However, he did seem a little nervous, glancing up and noticing that he was a good three inches shorter than the host author. He said nothing, but raised himself on his toes as high as he could without thinking other people noticed.

"Thanks for the invite, Grim." FanFicGuy turned to the others. "Hello everyone, nice to meet you all!"

With that, the second guest author promptly settled into his chair. The robots nodded approvingly.

"I like your entrance." Bass said. "You're not trying to be overly dramatic like Teribane over here and slide across the floor. Heh, I bet Teribane spent twenty minutes trying to come up with an entrance. She was probably sorting through cheap one liners and banging her head on her keyboard."

"I most certainly did not!" Teribane huffed, stubbornly folding her arms. "I just chose the entrance that comes most naturally."

Upon hearing Bass' comments, FanFicGuy nervously tugged at his collar and cleared his throat. Proto Man shook his head, but not at FanFicGuy.

"GrimMoody," he said. "You sure are milking this audience participation thing. Isn't there a guideline against that?"

"Er...well...um," It was Moody's turn to tug at her collar. "It doesn't really count, you know? After all, the story is over, and this is just some features."

"Right...I'm sure..."

"Personally I don't think it quite counts as reader participation if it's arranged ahead of time and doesn't involve every single reader." Teribane added. "Certainly I've seen people take suggestions for plot from readers sometimes, and including a certain number reviewer as a character... and if that isn't reader participation, or it's a tolerable level of it, then this is too. At least in my opinion."

"Yeah, and who'd bother reporting it anyways?" FanFic smiled at Moody. "Everyone loves ya!"

"Not everybody." GrimMoody smiled a bit. "This one guy I talked to said that my plot 'committed suicide' in Afterlife."

"Well, he should commit suicide on his plot!" FanFicGuy stubborn banged a fist into the arm of his chair. "I know that doesn't even make sense, but I'm sticking with what I said!"

"Ha, don't take it so seriously." Moody laughed. "He basically said he didn't like that I inserted myself. It's pretty understandible. Thing is, the entire point of this series was to insert myself and show my own personal defiance of what Dr. K did to the Mega Man plot. As much as I appreciate what he did gameplaywise as time went on, the plot was just atrocious. And if I didn't insert myself, I'd have to use a stupid time travel plot. And aside from Back to the Future, I hate time travel plots. They tend to all blur together and be pretty much alike. Anyways, to the questions! So FanFic, what'd ya think of my stories? Anything you saw differently than I did?"

"Well, I think the series is wonderful, with a well balance between humor and drama. I've always loved how at the end of each chapter, you always included a Bio of the Robot Masters seen or mentioned in the chapter, your take on them, and their role behind the scenes. Adds a lot of insight on what's happening where the readers aren't looking." he explained. "I actually see the Capcom version and GrimMoody's versions as nearly identical, actually."

"Thank you." Moody said. "I tried."

"However," here he put a little emphasis in his tone. "I do see Bass as a bit more violent, and a tad less intelligent than Grim's, who's version of him has been seen reading several advanced books throughout the series. No offense Bass, you just always came off as a bit of a brute to me."

"Hey!" Bass snarled. "Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here and talking like that? And shut up, Proto Idiot!"

But Proto Man wouldn't shut up. He just kept laughing. "Oh, oh man...this is good. Keep going, FanFicGuy!"

"Erm, I didn't mean to be offensive." the FanFicGuy said. "I just don't see Bass reading very much. I always envisioned him either training constantly, annoying Wily about battle upgrades, or when he's really bored, flipping through channels on the TV with a bored expression on his face."

"He definitely does that last one." Crystal Bot agreed. "But most of the time he just reads books with a bored expression on his face."

"I'm not a dang two dimensional caricature." Bass insisted, folding his arms with a contemptful snort. "I have a lot more depth than you think."

"Actually, FanFicGuy," Moody said. "You're pretty much right about Bass. Thing is, he was really influenced a lot by Dr. Light, and that means he wants to read more. Also, he doesn't like being seen as stupid, so he's constantly reading just to make himself look smart."

"Hey!" Bass roared. "You take that back! And what did I just tell you, Proto Man? Shut the hell up already!"

But Blues kept on laughing, and it took GrimMoody to make the dark robot calm down.

"Alright, alright," GrimMoody clapped her hands. "On to the next question! So what kind of stuff do you like to write, FanFic?"

"Sappy crap and bad humor. Not _too _ashamed to admit it." FanFicGuy shrugged. "I personally wish I had the patience to write such a series as GrimMoody's, but unfortunately, patients is one of two virtues I lack. Oh, and writing skills is the other."

"Heh, an author willing to admit they suck. That's new." Bass glared at GrimMoody.

The authoress purposefully ignored him, though put it in her mind to figure out a way to punish him. "So Guy, what do you consider your best work?"

"My best work? Well, I guess it would be a toss up between 'Roll Items' and 'Squeaks.' 'Roll Items' was a fic I wrote after thinking that the Items you can give to Roll in MegaMan Legends were much more sentimental than the ones you can give her in Legends 2, and 'Squeaks' was my own take on those suggestive stories that turn out to be something completely innocent when the reader actually understands what's going on. As I said before, I specialize in sappy crap and bad humor."

"Sappy crap and bad humor, eh?" GrimMoody slowly turned to Bass, an evil smile gradually growing on her lips. "Sounds like something I need to show to my characters...heh heh..."

"Hey Moody, remember that time we killed you?" Bass growled. "I don't mind doing that again, by the way."

"Yes, because that worked out _so well_." Moody went back to her guests. "In any case, if I can avoid another interruption, hows abouts I get to another question. This one is for both my authors. Starting with FanFicGuy, I guess. What is your favorite Mega Man series, character, robot master, and...color? Yeah, color."

"Well, I'd have to say that the X series is my favorite," FanFicGuy suddenly noticed that Teribane beside him was taller, even though sitting down. As he continued to speak, he tried to sit up straighter. "I grew up with it, played it everyday for six or so years. My favorite character would have to be... Spider, from Megaman X Command Mission. He was so cool, and so different from most of the characters I'd seen before! My favorite Robot Master is Skull Man, no doubt. Such a neat character, and creepy too! And my favorite color is Rainbow."

"Rainbows? Pffft. How sweet." Bass muttered. "I bet this chump is the type of guy that likes My Little Pony."

"Um, of course not, haha..." FanFicGuy nervously tugged at his collar. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"Keep your comments to yourself, Bass!" GrimMoody's voice obtained an ever so gentle sing-song tone that quietly threatened serious punishment. "Anywho, so really rainbow? And you like Spider?"

"Rainbow as in, I don't really have a favorite color, so I just choose them all." Guy glanced at Teri's legs, hoping they were shorter than they looked. "I liked Spider for several reasons. One, he was a bounty Hunter, which instantly makes him made of Win and Awesome. Two, he had that whole 'Poker Player' Theme going on, and I love card games. He ever used cards as weapons! He also had this laid-back personality, but could be very serious when he wanted to be. And as for Grim's portrayal of Skull Man, I loved him. He creeped Roll out, and was likely snickering in his skull while doing it. He's loyal, and makes a damn good bodyguard. I want a Skull Man bodyguard..."

"D'aww," Moody tittered. "I'm flattered!"

"I'm not." Roll pouted. "Skull Man was really scary! I hated how he would always hide in dark corners and try to scare me! So mean."

"You really like Spider?" Mega Man winced. "I played that game once, and I didn't like how he was really Redips. That seemed so cheap."

"You really played that game?" Guy was amazed. "But you're a character..."

"Sure I did. It was non-cannon. And I really don't like Redips."

"I think the real Spider is dead." Guy said. "Redips had to have copied someone. I think that sometime in the main plot, the real Spider was replaced, due to some plot holes in some of the conversations. Redips felt more like a thrown out character, who was only put in to attempt to make the story more dramatic."

"That story _was _way too dramatic." Mega Man shook his head. "I don't think I'll play it ever again. That and I don't like RPGs. Except for Super Mario RPG, and this one 'Bob the Hamster' RPG I found on Hamster Republic. That was really fun, but unfinished. Oh excuse me, it's your turn to answer the question, Teribane."

"That's fine. Let's see, series, character, robot master, and color. Hm..." Teribane thought a moment. "Well, my favorite Mega Man series would have to be Classic, hands down. Especially if you include the spin off type of things, such as the American cartoon. The cartoon is hilarious."

Bass attempted to make a smark remark, but he couldn't get out more than a "hm" before GrimMoody stared him down.

"Favorite character is difficult." Teribane continued, brandishing an evil grin. "Either Protoman or Bass from the 'main' characters - especially if you decide to include the cartoon again, in which case the evil Proto Man from there, who is kind of a fusion of the two."

"Fusion?" Bass lifted an eyebrow.

"Ugh..." Proto Man groaned. "That's going to be a mental image tough to get rid of."

Teribane giggled. "As for Robot Masters, Sheep Man and Napalm Man. Sheep Man just because Sheep Man, and Napalm Man because his name is awesome and he is highly explosive. My version Sheep Man was originally built as a cuddly therapy robot. After Wily got to him, well... he still looks cuddly from afar, to be fair. As soon as you get close though, he spontaneously generates robotic rabies."

The guest author paused a moment, glancing over at FanFicGuy. He was trying to prop his hat a little higher. Teribane shrugged it off and finished the question. "So colour? Black, I guess. 'Tis a nice colour."

"Why the black?" Moody asked. "Are you unnecessarily grim?"

"It is both relatively practical and a trademark of evil. Mwaha. Even if whoever said you need black to sneak around at night lied. Black stands out, you actually need dark grey. Random tidbit of info there."

"Uh...huh...s'okay." GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow. "So the author I've forced into orange and green likes black, and the author wearing nothing but black likes all the colors. Okay, whatever. It's about time I finished off some of these deleted scenes."

**"Wily was always evil." Roll leaned her head on her knees. "It wasn't that interview, and it wasn't the Nobel Peace Prize. It was him. He had the capacity for evil, and he followed through on it. It's nobody's fault but his own. I can't believe Crystal Bot went to see him in the hospital. I never would've done that."**

**Mega Man bit his lip. If talking to her would do any good, then he would, but she was caught up in her own darkness. Did Wily do something to her? It puzzled him that Roll could be so harsh, even to Wily. For the moment though, he just scooted over beside Roll and put an arm around her.**

**"Crystal Bot is very merciful." Rock agreed. "It was her task to see him, not yours. Your task is to forgive him and let go of everything he's done. It's over now, Roll. Can't you leave it all behind?"**

**Roll lifted her head, looking for a moment like she was going to object, but then the stubbornness fell out of her face. She relaxed, and instantly was more lovely than the moment before. **

**"I can." she finally said. "It really is all over now. I...I forgive him now. It's not as if hating him will do any good. But...are you sure it's all over? There's no more nasty surprises waiting for us?"**

**"I doubt it." he reassured her. "And if there were, I would take care of them like always. Haven't you heard? I'm the invicible robot."**

**"Dorkface." Roll giggled and hit him in the side. All the same, she really did believe in him again. Slowly, even hesitantly, her heart was going over to the side of faith again, and she wasn't going to let go anymore.**

**Before Auto could respond, a beep sounded at the lab's console. Both robots went up to it curiously, though Crystal Bot made sure to stay at least five feet away. Auto pushed a few buttons.**

**"Huh, it's a text transmission." Auto noted with surprise. "Most people don't send those anymore."**

**Well, apparently someone had. Auto accessed the file and opened it on the computer. Its letters appeared on the screen large enough for both robots to read. They gasped simultaneously.**

**"Everyone," the text read. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I can't explain why, but this is something I have to do. If anyone's going to defeat Zero, it can only be someone he doesn't expect. I'm really very sorry to do this to you, but I'm going to fight Zero myself. Please don't try to stop me or interrupt. You'll only put yourselves in danger. I love all of you, and if this is it, then goodbye. Roll."**

**"WHAT?" Crystal Bot practically shrieked. "What is she doing?"**

**Auto was instantly typing away at the computer. "Oh no! According to the records, Roll teleported out half an hour ago!"**

**"That's it! I've got to stop her before she does something stupid!" **

**Auto was quick to grab Crystal Bot's arm before her teleport code could sequence. "No, you can't go out there or Zero will take over your mind again!"**

**"But we have to do something!"**

**The Light-bot could only shake his head. "There's nothing we can do to save her now..."**

**"I just wish I had someone to talk to about it." Roll shifted on her feet. "It's so weird to have the memories in my head with no one to discuss it with. I don't know if I can handle it."**

**"Actually, there is someone you tell." GrimMoody said "Go ahead. Look."**

**The author pointed to her makeshift, future-revealing screen. Colors on it swirled into figures. One of those figures was Roll herself.**

**~Roll stood in the darkness of the room. She nervously stepped forward, switching on the light. Yes, he was there. Dr. Nikola Cain was there on the pale green couch (quite a nasty color, actually), perfectly asleep. His snores permeated the room like the roar of a dinosaur, but Roll only giggled. **

**"You're a worse snorer than Dr. Light, you know that?" Roll whispered over his sleeping form. "And every bit as messy too."**

**The housekeeper's accusation was very true. All sorts of papers lay strewn about the coffeetable, the loveseat, and the floor. Cain even held a set of blueprints under his head as he slept. Roll's instincts came out at once. She collected the papers, and even without knowing what exactly they were, she shuffled them into appropriate stacks on the coffeetable. **

**As she cleaned, Roll sneered at the apartment. It was such a tiny place. The living was the dining room (in Cain's case, a powder blue foldaway table and chair on the other half of the room) and a tiny kitchen to the right of the place. There must have been a bathroom down the hall next to the kitchen, but there was no bedroom. Dr. Cain was evidently too tired to pull out the couch.**

**"Silly, silly man." Roll chanted to herself. "What a place to end up! You brought it on yourself, you know. Oh, how funny!"**

**Roll couldn't help herself. It was so funny. Dr. Cain must have fallen asleep atop his work, and already the poor blueprints were covered in a small puddle of drool. The girl-bot tugged it out from under his head, trying her best to be gentle. The sleeping man snorted, startling into the waking world.**

**"Buh?" he sputtered. "Wha-? Who's there?"~**

"The first bit up there is a piece from Wily's 'funeral chapter'." GrimMoody explained. "I deleted it because it took the chapter to a happier place, and I wanted to keep that chapter in fairly dark territory. The second is a bit where Roll actually left a letter at the lab saying why she had gone to fight Zero. That was just really unnecessary, and it was a good way to ensure that Rock or someone came and stopped her. The last is from when I broke the fourth wall. I sort of like it, as it makes Dr. Cain a more tolerable character, but I never found a way to end this piece satisfactorily. Its only goal was to make Dr. Cain seem human and be willing to talk to Roll, but other than that was pretty purposeless. Though it did give Roll a place to confess she'd been in an alternate timeline. Dr. Cain is probably the only person willing to believe her."

"I would believe her." Mega Man protested. "I'm her brother!"

"No you wouldn't. You'd be weirded out. And don't you get any ideas, Proto Man. You'd think someone had hacked into her brain just to torment her."

Proto Man opened his mouth, but promptly shut it again. After a moment, he chuckled. "Yeah. I'd probably think it was some last ditch effort from Wily."

"Well, I'm glad that you kept Cain's bit out, he's a character I love to hate. I don't want to sympathize for him - heck I don't even want to tolerate him! It was part of his villainous charm. And 'dorkface', Roll? that's the best you can come up with? But then again, this is a T rated piece of fiction..."

"And I'm a PG rated girl." Roll retorted, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm very proper, and I don't use bad language. It's not ladylike."

"Aw, I want to feel bad for poor Cain." Teribane added in a pouty voice. "I might pat him sympathetically if not for the other stuff he did."

"So, while we're all here." GrimMoody said. "How's about we let our guest authors ask some questions? Teribane, anything on your mind? You can ask anybody anything."

"My question, and this is for all of you," Teribane eyed the robots gleefully. "Is this: what, in your opinion, was the most embarrassing thing you did over the course of the series? And the most awesome?"

"Guh, you're really going to make us answer that?" Bass grimaced.

"I am." GrimMoody smiled. "And thanks for offering to go first."

"She's already humiliated us in front of fanfiction net." Proto Man sighed. "You might as well answer the question."

"If it'll get things over with sooner, I guess I will. The most embarrasing thing I did was get saved by Rock. I don't know how the hell GrimMoody got that into her evil head, but that was insanely embarrassing."

"Ooh!" Roll piped up, grinning. "And that time GrimMoody showed what a nice guy you were in the first Bonus Features."

"And how about the time Zero kicked your butt?" Proto Man grinned. "That had to hurt."

"You were defeated by Mega Man a couple more times during the series, if I'm not mistaken." Crystal Man mentioned. "That couldn't have been very edifying."

"Screw all of you guys. _Anyway_, the most awesome thing I ever did...eh...well, there was that time I arrested Wily. Aw hell, that was great." Bass grinned with delight. "And no offense, Crystal Bot, but I think it was pretty awesome that I defeated someone with an instant death spike for a weapon."

"Aw, don't remind me of that!" Crystal put a disturbing grimace on her adorable face. "I didn't like being brainwashed into fighting you! But I guess you did defeat me, and I _did_ have a death spike. Yeah, that's pretty awesome! I'll go next, I guess. Besides fighting Forte-kun, I was never that embarrassed during the story."

"Except when I had to save you from _Signal Man_, the wimpiest of all the Cain robot masters." Bass snorted.

"Hey, it's not my fault I have Toad Man - I mean, Wily Disease!" Crystal Bot shook a finger at him. "And I was going to be all sweet and say that the awesomest thing I ever did was organize that huge fan gathering for you so you could fight Algorhythm Man."

Sheepish, Bass grinned. "I'm sorry, then. I have to admit, that was pretty awesome of you."

"Thank you very much!" Sonata winked. "Yes, yes, I am pretty awesome!"

"The most embarrassing part of this story for me was being dead for most of it." Crystal Man retorted. "And I'm supposed to be GrimMoody's favorite character."

"Don't feel too bad." Bass said. "I'm Grimm's second favorite and basically anything bad that could have happened to me did. Rock saved my life, I get compared to Wily, Axl gets killed right in front of me...the list just goes on."

"That must make me her third favorite." Proto Man sighed. "She's tortured me endlessly. You think it would be pretty obvious what my most embarrassing moment was, but actually that was more...torturous than embarrassing. As far as pure embarrassment goes, well it was when Bass saved my life in How Many."

"Oh?" Roll asked. "It wasn't the time you had a tea party with Leila when she was six and had to wear a feather boa and tiara?"

Bass guffawed, and Crystal Bot laughed. Even Crystal Man and Rock chuckled. Mega Man just smiled. Proto Man eyed them all, but kept his composure.

"No." Blues replied simply. "That was something I did to please a small girl. And technically speaking, that didn't even happen in this story."

"Oh," Bass grinned. "What you're saying is, _that's _the most awesome thing you've ever done."

"The most awesome thing I've done is save my brother's life so that he could live to defeat you again." Proto Man's calm only barely wavered. "But during the main plot, I suppose I enjoyed...oh yes! It was that time during WGT when I could order you about. _That _was awesome."

"I actually think the most awesome thing you did was come and see Dr. Light when he was dying." Mega Man said. "That really meant a lot to him."

Proto Man was taken aback, and even Bass resisted any further taunting. Blues finally shook his head at his brother.

"You certainly know how to shut down an argument, don't you?"

"It's one of my favorite things to do." Rock winked. "But as far as most awesome, I'd have to say...well, returning to my lab. It's where I was meant to be since my creation, and I didn't realize how much I've missed it during the past few years. I guess technically speaking I'm still a soldier, or defender if you like, but once Bass takes over for me, I'll be in my lab all day and that will be awesome! Oh, and it was also awesome how I got to be a part of so many robots becoming good guys. Team 5, Team 6, all our other volunteers...it just makes me so happy."

"What about your most embarrassing moment?" Crystal Bot asked. "Tell us, tell us!"

"Um...well, since GrimMoody didn't seem to like writing about me, there isn't much to tell." Mega Man rested his head on a hand. "Hm. I guess it was pretty embarrassing to be trapped under a huge chunk of brick by Echelon Man. It didn't actually bother me that much, but still, Echelon Man wasn't the hardest robot I've ever fought. It seems weird he'd get me pinned like that, even though I beat him. Oh well. That's the kind of thing that happens when you're a fighter-bot."

Roll counted on her fingers, looking around the room for a moment before realizing everyone else had gone already. "Oh! It's my turn now. Um, well, I was very lucky that I wasn't a fighter-bot. Nothing too embarrassing ever happened to me. Wait, the time Crystal Bot tricked me and stole sensitive information from the lab was pretty bad. I felt sick for a week!"

"Sorry, Roll-chan!" Crystal Bot giggled. "But I wasn't a good guy back then."

"It's okay. Anyways, the most awesome thing I've ever done...you might think it was the time I went out to go fight Zero, but that was pretty scary. The thing I did that I'm the most proud of - and this is really going to sound silly - is when Bass was first training me, and he said I could be a fighter. Well, what he actually said was that I looked like a crybaby girl and that I should take advantage of that. But what he meant was that even though I look like a crybaby girl, I really can be a good fighter!" Seeing Mega Man's expression, Roll quickly backpedaled. "Well, that is if Rock would let me. Anyway, it's not that I want to be a fighter, I'm just really happy that someone like Bass would say I can be one if I wanted to."

Extremely flattered, Bass leaned back in his chair and grinned as wide as the moon. "Aw, come on. There's no way that's more awesome than the time you destroyed Epidemic Man. That was awesome, even if it was in a different time line. That's just what he deserved too: to get destroyed by Roll."

"Answering hat took a bit." GrimMoody said. "But hey, I think y'all are getting the hang of being entertaining for the audience. Oh hey, FanFicGuy, do you have any questions for the 'bots?"

At being addressed, FanFicGuy quickly stopped trying to make himself sit higher in his chair. He had realized a couple of minutes ago that Bass, who sat to his left, was taller than him, as much as he tried to assure himself that it was only because of the dark robot's protruding headfins. Guy cleared his throat and got himself into professional mode.

"Okay, here's a question, but it's for you, not a 'bot. Can I ask you Why I'm in the Bonus Features when I only reviewed this particular story, like, once? I was going through my old reviews, and when I got to this story, I saw only one, for chapter 15. The reason why I'm asking the question, is because when other people see I only reviewed once, they'll be asking the same thing!"

"Simple." Moody shrugged. "You're my friend. I feel like I know you. We talked a lot during Afterlife, particularly about your Maverick name. Besides, it's just a thing: you can't always base characters off everyone you know because inspiration only goes so far. You're inspired for some, and not so much for others. Of course, I could end up irritating some people, couldn't I? Well, I only made Mavericks out of my Afterlife reviewers and favs, and I only made Top Man write creepy poetry for Queen Sunstar and now Teribane. I think all my mature reviewers will realize that life is simply unfair."

GrimMoody paused a moment and shuddered. "I actually feel pretty weird about the poetry for Sunstar. I really hoped she would realize it was Top Man speaking and I'm not some crazy net stalker."

"Trust me, we all know how Top Man can be." Proto Man assured her. "I'm sure Sunstar understands."

"I hope so. In any case, any more questions, Guy?"

"A couple more. How in the world do you stay so inspired to write like this? How do you have the patience to write five stories in a row?"

"To be honest, I don't really _have_ the patience." Moody admitted. "I just had a story I really wanted to write, and I wrote it. I forced myself to pretend that I could do it, and lo and behold, apparently I can. Though it is something to spend three years writing a fanfiction - it'll be three years officially next month - and not recieve any real compensation beyond fanfiction net kudos. Part of me feels like it's a waste to write when I don't get paid and published, even though my mind knows better. I've gained endurance, experience, and fans from all of this. And hopefully y'all will end up reading an original fanfiction I write, someday when I really publish something. My plan for the moment is to create a book of short stories and sell it online for two bucks as an e-book."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea." FanFicGuy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How do you publish something online and make money?"

"Dang if I know. I'll find out eventually, I guess."

"Alright, just one more question." Guy turned to Crystal Bot. "Do you have a kawaii chip or something? You're just so adorable!"

Bass rolled his eyes. "Yep. A total brony."

"There's nothing wrong with My Little Pony, Forte-kun." Crystal Bot flipped a hand at her boss, pretending to brush him off.

"Perhaps I should answer this question." Crystal Man spoke up. "While my daughter has no literal 'kawaii chip', she was designed to be as appealing a personality as possible so that when Dr. Wily discovered her - I could not hide her forever - then he would desire to keep her alive, even if he felt I was betraying him. I suppose my plan worked too well and my daughter replaced me, but that is of no consequence. I prefer her to live rather than to keep my own life."

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Crystal Bot happily clutched at his arm. "But Dad, I like it best when _both_ of us are alive. FanFicGuy, I guess it's safe to say that I turned out so cute because I have the best dad in the world. He always watches out for me, even when I don't know it!"

"Aww!" Mega Man said.

"Gag..." Bass said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey!" Teribane protested. "FanFicGuy gets to ask all that, while I only get one question?"

"Your question was long, and Guy's were short." GrimMoody turned to her. "Bonus Features isn't finished yet, so ask away!"

"My next one is for you." Teribane said. "Were there any points in the story that, while writing, you decided to change completely - ones for which the ending would have turned out drastically dissimilar?"

"Ooh, toughie." GrimMoody scratched her big nose. "Well, not exactly. For the most part I got the sense of what would work and what wouldn't pretty quickly. If I had to go back and edit, I'd mostly work on shaping the least influencial of the scenes. But I did consider during Wily Ga Taosenai to make Bass get distrusted by the government, and ultimately betrayed by them. Luckily for him, that sort of distracted from the story, and the ending I had in mind was more one of him versus Algorhythm Man, and all those 'the government is the bad guy' stories are so trite and overdone that I couldn't be bothered to do a story like that."

"Wow, she had a chance to torture me and didn't take it." Bass said. "I'm impressed."

"Hush you. In any case, the change I most considered was for what turned out to be a fairly small character: Demi. Demi, if you can recall, is Dr. Cain's minature robot assistant monster robot thing, and he merges with Epic Man to become Epidemic Man - that's so dang clever, ain't it? At one point, I actually considered making Demi a robot chick as Dr. Cain's companion. But after thinking about it for a while, the potential plotlines became just too creepy. That was just a no. So he ended up being a monster. In the end Demi turned out not to be used as much as I would have liked, and that really bothered me. If I ever decide to edit this into an official fanfiction, he's getting his parts extended."

"What's so creepy about a female robot?" Crystal Bot asked. "I'm a girl robot and I'm not creepy."

"Hush, dear." Crystal Man reached out and touched her arm. "Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Ssshhhh." Crystal Man persisted. "Shh."

"Ooooo-kay." GrimMoody turned back to Teribane. "I guess we've got time for one more question, if you want."

"Alright. My next question - okay, demand, really, is for the first character to accept a challenge: rate all the other characters," Teribane gleefully searched the faces of those around her for a taker. "In terms of Raditz."

"Raditz?" GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"It's a Dragon Ball Z thing." Proto Man answered. "I think he's Goku's brother."

"Goku's brother?" GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow even further, taking advantage of this as much as she can in fiction, because she can't do so in real life. "How do you rate someone by a brother?"

"I think it's like that 'over 9000' thing." Mega Man turned to his brother. "Is that right?"

"Oh yeah, it might be." Blues tapped on the arms of his chair. "I don't know how you would rate someone like that either. I always imagined they were sort of making up the numbers. I didn't watch a lot of it."

"You watch cartoons?" Bass stared awkwardly at Teribane. "Aren't you a little old for that?"

"Bfft. You're a cartoon character." Teribane retorted. "If people like me didn't write about you then you wouldn't exist. Sheesh, guys. It's like your life force power levels! Isn't anybody here familiar with Dragon Ball Z?"

Blues waved his hand in a "sort of" gesture, and everyone else just stared at each other, waiting for someone else to raise their hand. No one did. Teribane turned to FanFicGuy for support, but he only shrugged.

"I like Dr. Who and Mass Effect." he said, feeling a little smug. "Sorry."

"Ooh, you like Doctor Who?" Crystal Bot squealed. "Me too!"

"So you're not going to answer my Raditz challenge?" Teribane turned hopefully to Proto Man. "Come on, it's all in good fun."

"Sorry." GrimMoody shrugged with apology. "I looked it up on Google, and I just don't get the concept. To me it's a bunch of imaginary numbers. Besides, that stuff is like for magical super saiyan power or something like that. It doesn't have anything to do with robotic effeciency."

"Isn't anyone at least going to try?"

"Okay, fine." Mega Man smiled. "I'll try. I'd say I'm about a...oh, one Raditz."

"Just one?" Proto Man asked. "Aren't you more than that?"

"Raditz is a brother, and I'm one brother." Rock winked.

"Oh, I see. Then I'm a Raditz and a half." Proto Man pointed to his neck. "The half is because I have a scarf."

"It's a cool scarf too."

"Why, thank you."

"That's not how it works..." Teribane tried to protest.

"I'm not a brother, I'm a sister." Roll teased. "That means I'm at least three Raditz. Three Raditz and a pony. One of you now owes me a pony."

"I have tons of brothers, and they all suck." Bass snorted. "So I trade my Raditz for an arm cannon."

"When it comes to Raditz," Crystal Bot piped up. "I'm the shiny, spiked hair! I like spiky hair!"

"And I'm Confucious out of twelve." Crystal Man added.

"That makes me four-fifths Napoleon." Guy said.

"And I'm hamster to the tenth power." GrimMoody winked.

"You guys are spoilsports." Teribane, much to Guy's glee, slouched in her chair enough to make him look an inch taller. "I'm done talking to you."

"Are you sure?" GrimMoody waved to the projector screen. "Because now it's time for the guest author profiles! Auto, be a doll and put all the info up on the screen here, will ya?"

Auto cranked up the next slide on the projector. A robot master profile popped up on the screen, information for the first of GrimMoody's guests.

**=====Teribane  
Good point: Insane  
Bad point: Obsessive over fandoms  
Likes: Reading anything and everything  
Dislikes: Bigots**

**Teribane was always an odd child. She spent her elementary school years as a member of a superhero squad with her friends, her superhero persona a blatant ripoff of Poochyena, only with wings. This can be excused, as she was young and did not yet know what a Mary Sue was.**

**She began reading and drawing very early, and later added writing to her list of skills. Her ability in all of these has been steadily increasing since, possibly in exact parallel to her insanity.**

**Teribane is notorious among her many acquintances to, while lost in thought, often walk straight past without noticing someone who is waving their arms and shouting. Her reading speed is relatively fast, going through at least one or two books a day on average, and she likes fiddling with strange crafts. She also enjoys and is extremely amused by the phenomenon known as the internet.**

**She has been assured that there is only a high possibility of her being an alien, not a certainty, and has plans of taking over the world with several other aspiring world dominator friends.**

**She also rather likes snickerdoodles and mint hot cocoa.**

"Wait, wait, her good point is _insane_?" Bass wrinkled his nose. "How is that good?"

"It's good that she's insane because if she wasn't, she'd have taken over the world by now." Proto Man's voice couldn't get any more dry as he stared at Teribane. "Yes, she would rule over all of us right now otherwise."

"Oh, be quiet!" Teribane tittered, not at all dismayed by the robots' reaction. "Little do you know that my insanity is the source of my power. That and snickerdoodles."

"I have to say, Teri," GrimMoody winced as she peered up at the projector screen. "I gotta say I'm pretty uncomfortable with your whole world conquering thing. I didn't think you were that kind of person."

"You never realize how many aspiring world dominators there are 'til you ask." Teribane replied cooly. "I think the world would be a much better place if I took it over. And prices on chocolate would definitely go down. It's just too expensive these days."

"As it so turns out, I'm the hero type. And now that you've confessed it is now my mission to stop you." GrimMoody donned a pair of sunglasses. "Oh wait, I'm too nearsighted..." The author switched back to her regular lenses. "Ah, much better."

"Oh relax, Moody." Teribane shifted forward a little, stretching her right hand around her back. "I'm not going to conquer your world. Though if I did, I'd definitely change its name. 'Nerdlandia' is just too much. But don't worry. I'm your guest today, and I would never conquer my host."

"You're not crossing your fingers behind your back, are you?" Mega Man asked.

"Of course not." Teribane quickly pulled her hand out and set it on the arm of her chair. "Hee hee, I just had an itch."

"Well, if we're going to be confessing things, then I've got one." GrimMoody sighed deeply before continuing. "It turns out...I'm a bigot."

"WHAT?" Teribane stared coldly, and her fingernails dug into the arms of the couch. "You really are?"

"Yes. I'm a white chocolate bigot. I just can't stand the stuff. Gives me headaches."

"Bigotry is wrong, GrimMoody." Teribane huffed. "Even against white chocolate."

"Pfft. White chocolate is the devil in candy form, and it's perfectly fine to be bigoted against the devil."

"As 'eager' as I am to see how much worse FanFic boy's profile is," Bass muttered. "Can we move on before this conversation gets any more stupid?"

"Fine, fine." GrimMoody pouted. "Auto, go ahead!"

**=====FanFicGuy  
Good point: Supportive  
Bad Point: Giant Ego  
Likes: Games  
Dislikes: Rap Music**

Suddenly, before any more information could come up on the screen, it exploded in a flash of light, sending all robots and authors to floor - except for one. Through the noise and smoke came the sound of terrifying, bellicose laughter. Mega Man, Proto Man and Bass all tried to stand up, but the roar of the explosion was replaced by the roar of vast metal machinery. Dozens of robo-men crowded the stage, each one impeccably dressed in delightful three piece suits and black bow ties. They held their shiny new tommy-guns pointed right at everyone, with one exception: FanFicGuy.

"Mwahahahaha! Bow before me, mortal fools! It is I, ThatFanFicGuy, but you may call me the Dictator-King of Awesomeness! First off, let me congratulate you on your fanfiction tastes, as you've chosen a damn good story to read - that's as close to a complement as you'll get, Grim, I'd suggest you take it. But now, we're here to talk about ME! So, lets get to it. My first edict for the province of Nerdlandia, newest addition to the FanFic Empire, is that you are to erect a ninety-foot statue of me in my honor. And while you're at it, a fifty foot statue of each actor that has played the Doctor, because Doctor Who is awesome. And secondly - "

"No, no, NO!"

Despite all the armed tuxedo-bots, a now very frazzled Teribane got to her feet and stomped her way over to Guy, sticking a defiant finger in his face. "You can't take over Nerdlandia, because _I'm_ taking over Nerdlandia!"

"Hey wait, you said you weren't!" GrimMoody gasped and tried to get up, but one of the tuxedo-bots quickly stomped her back down. "You liar!"

"Cry about it, why don't you?" Teribane scoffed at Moody before turning to her opponent. "You can't do this to me! I had my army ready and everything!"

"Well too bad." Guy huffed. "I called it first."

"Called it? There's no 'called it' in the world of supervillains!" Teri threw a hand in the air, and she raised her voice the rafters. "Venom-bots, battle positions!"'

With that, all the stage-dwellers were insantly aware of even more robots. Long fanged pterodactyls hung from the beams and lights above them, each one ready to drop a powerful egg-bomb on the robots and humans below.

"Hey!" Guy yelled, raising himself on his toes so that he could look down on Teribane. "Stop it! You're ruining my invasion!"

"It's my invasion now." Teribane folded her arms smugly. "But y'know what? I'm a nice person. Instead of fighting each other and destroying each other's armies, let's join forces. We can't give GrimMoody a chance to win Nerdlandia back. Conquest is more fun with friends anyway. We can go get cocoa later."

"Well...alright." FanFicGuy agreed. "But I still get a statue. Now let's deal with these guys. Mr. Tuxedo 3000s, let the robots up."

And so that left GrimMoody still under the foot of a tuxedo-bot as all the other characters were allowed to stand. Mega Man and the other fighter-bots looked around for an opportunity to get free, but the tuxedo-bots still had their arms tightly pinioned, and the dinosaur-bots above remained ready to let their bombs fly.

"And so, you robots," As he spoke, Guy conjured himself platform shoes and a bigger hat. He was getting tired of standing on his toes. "You don't have to be our prisoners. You can be free robots on the single, solitary condition that you promise to never help GrimMoody get Nerdlandia back, and acknowledge my unending reign."

"_Our _reign." Teribane corrected.

"Yeah, what she said. What say you, bots?"

"We won't side with violent conquerers!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Right, guys?"

"I don't know..." Proto Man glanced down at GrimMoody. "If we don't join them, we'll have to keep putting up with _her_."

"Oh yeah." Bass glared at the author with distaste. "Grimm here always treated us like crap. She actually deserves this."

"Hey! You're really going to treat me this way?" Moody exclaimed. "Bass, you're one of my favorite robots!"

"Being your favorite doesn't exactly earn us any favors." Crystal Man narrowed his eyes. "I only appeared in two of your stories, and one of those was a brief cameo in a memory chip."

"That's right." Mega Man said. "And I never got featured the way Moody promised! Maybe...maybe things will get better if Teribane and FanFicGuy take over..."

"And Guy said we were going to make Dr. Who statues!" Crystal Bot added.

The robots stared at the conquering writers, each one wondering what life would be like under their new leaders. They glanced at each other, looking at each face to see if there was an answer.

"Shall we put it to a vote?" Rock suggested. "Who supports Teribane and FanFicGuy?"

"NO!" a desperate GrimMoody shouted. "Not while I'm still the author here!"

"Pssht." Teribane laughed at Grimm. "And what exactly are you going to do about it?"

"Yeah," Guy said. "You're the one that let us into your world in the first place!"

"Well, I'm not powerless!" GrimMoody zapped the projector screen back into place. "Auto! The next slide, please!"

**Robots couldn't cry.**

**Or at least Snakeman was pretty sure he couldn't. He knew his old body didn't have the physical means of doing so. Now that he was in Megaman's body, maybe he could, only he didn't know how, and he was glad he didn't.**

**He winced and squeezed his eyes shut as Protoman kicked him again, trying not to move, not even bothering to pick himself up from the floor. Maybe, just maybe, if he stopped moving he'd be left alone.**

**"You're Megaman, got it? You're my brother!"**

**This needed a reply. The green-white bot - or at least he'd never stop thinking of himself that way, even if he was now blue - nodded frantically.**

**"Act like him!"**

**Snakeman whimpered involuntarily as Protoman kicked him again, and the visored robot flinched, stopping. He looked a little shell-shocked, as if only now realizing what he was doing, then turned away and hit the wall with a fist, driving it almost an inch into the metal.**

**"You're... my brother..."**

**Snakeman cautiously opened one eye a crack, only to see Protoman hunched over, his fist still embedded in the wall. He cringed as the robot started to speak again, then slowly uncurled, unwrapping his arms from his side.**

**"It's alright, Snakeman. You can go now."**

**It sounded oddly choked, forced, but Snakeman didn't question it, deciding that the robot must be in a forgiving mood - although he still didn't understand what he'd done wrong - and taking the chance to get out of there. Overly grateful for this new body's speed, even if it didn't seem to have brought much other good to him, he only stopped at the doorway for a second to look back.**

**That bot has something seriously wrong with him.**

**Protoman waited for the door to close before he let the "I'm sorry." out.**

**He leaned against the wall, his eyes closed, then slid down, folding his legs.**

**Wishful thinking. That's all it was. The person he really most wanted on his side, he'd never have. The best he could hope for was a cheap imitation.**

**But just this second, he was really glad that...**

**Robots couldn't cry.**

"What..." Bass gasped. "What's that?"

"That, my dear Bass," GrimMoody rolled out from under the tuxedo-bot's foot and stood up. "Is a sample of Teribane's work."

"Aw, hell," Bass soured worse the longer he read the words. "I was going to make fun of Proto Man, but...I just feel bad for him."

"Stop insulting my work, you!" Teribane yelled.

"But why would I cry because Snake Man is in my brother's body?" Blues, equally horrified, couldn't help but staring. "Do I want Snake Man to pretend to be my brother so that I can pretend that my brother and I get along? I mean, I know this is the Ruby-Spears universe, but that's insanely creepy."

"You're right about that." Moody nodded. "Auto!"

**Such small things, near meaningless objects, yet each sayed a different thing, having a different meaning.**

**A Flower, a Ring, and a Music Box. simple little worthless possessions to some, but when he gave them to her, to his Roll, she treated them as if they were priceless.**

**The Flower, found out in Yass Plains, when it was in a wrecked state because of the Bonnes Tanks and Cannons. between the blazing fires and hot metal, he had spotted it, and kept it with him because it reminded him of his friend. He kept it close, and soon after gave it to her because of its beauty. It was so much like her, simple, yet elegent, with yellow petals that were so much like her hair. When he gave it to her, it symbolized that he treasured her friendship, that though the flower may wilt, their friendship never would.**

**The Ring, he spent two days underground when he found it. In the dark with nothing like a flashlight, it shined forth from a little hole in the wall. It was a beautiful ring, made of gold with a little silver ring going around the middle. He immediantly turned back and fought off any enemy Reaverbots that got in his way, simply to give her such a treasure. When he gave it to her, it symbolized that the Ring made everyone who wore it look more beautiful, but it was her, that made it look more beautiful, for compared to her, it was nothing but a piece of shiny metal.**

**And finally, the Music Box. He had played on that game show countless times, running and skating to get that Music Box. After countless hours he had finally retrieved said object, and nearly collapsed from exhastion. When the producer asked if the effort was worth the small prize, he just grinned and nodded.**

**He gave it to her the moment she showed up in the Spotters Car. She knew how hard he had worked to get it, after all, the Car had a portable Television in it, and felt bad for him giving her all these gifts, but he had insisted that he had planned to give it to her the whole time. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug, making both feel quite embaressed when they noticed the cameras were still rolling and had just caught the whole thing live and had broadcasted it all over the small island.**

**He had given her it to symbolize that every move she made was filled with a certain grace, every dance step filled with perfection, no matter how clumsy or childish it may seem to others. That though she may not be able to hold a note while singing along to the songs, that her voice was like a choir of Angels.**

**It made his heart skip a beat whenever he saw her with these things, when she would fill the vase her flower sat in with fresh water, when she had kept her promise to never take her sparkling ring off, and how when she was cleaning up around the Flutter, the Music Box played, with her singing along, even if she knew less then half the words to the song that was playing.**

**All these items said a different thing, yet all said the same at the same time. They spoke out what he felt. They all said, "Thank you for being here, for being my family, my best friend, for being yourself and for being the girl I will always and forever love."**

"Oh, ugh!" Mega Man exclaimed. "That's terrible!"

"I warned you about my sappy crap." FanFicGuy shrugged. "I never lied to you about it."

"I'd a million times rather deal with GrimMoody than with this!" Proto Man exclaimed. "I didn't know it would get this bad!"

"I can't look at it any longer!" Roll cried out. "Take it down!"

"Yes, yes it is." It was GrimMoody's turn to be smug, and she was sure going to take it. "Normally I avoid being negative about my reviewers, but I knew you two might pull off a stunt like this. Now the both of you will make your armies disappear, or else."

"Or else, what?" Guy snapped. "We've still got the drop on you!"

"Oh do you?" Moody snapped her fingers.

It felt like the room had exploded. Throes of pink, green, and blue lighting (the crystal robots admired this appreciatively) exploded across the stage, zapping at every last tuxedo-bot and pteradactyl in the place. Each one disappeared in a cloud of colored smoke, leaving both guest authors bereft of any support. The two huddled together, waiting for the moment when the lightning would come for them. But it didn't touch them, except when a bit of green lightning knocked off Guy's hat. As the electronic storm stopped, GrimMoody emerged, completely unhurt and plenty angry. Guy and Teribane, still shuddering, opened their tight shut eyes and awaited whatever punishment would befall them.

"Get them!" Moody thundered.

Quick as teleports the two authors found themselves pinned. Mega Man had Teribane by the arms, and Bass searched FanFicGuy for weapons. As he felt Guy's pocket, he laughed.

"I really was just joking earlier." Bass reached into Guy's pocket and pulled a little pink pony. "But he really does like My Little Pony!"

"There's nothing at all wrong with that!" Guy growled. "Friendship is magic! Long live Dr. Whooves! Long live Fluttershy!"

"Shut up, Guy." Moody grinned. "It's time for your punishment."

"Um...we're sorry?" Teribane offered.

"Duly noted." GrimMoody just couldn't stop smiling. "But hey, y'all are my guests, and they always say empty your larder before emptying your lead. Y'all are forever banished from Nerdlandia. But before you go, it's time for your parting gifts! Rock, step away from Teri so that she can get her gift."

Mega Man's eyes widened, and he dove away from Teribane as quickly as he good. For a moment nothing happened, and Teribane looked around for something to happen. Finally she looked up.

"OOF!"

Before she could comprehend what was happening, a huge pillow slammed into her face, knocking her to the floor. The thing was so large, all anyone could see of Teribane was her feet as they kicked and struggled. Finally Teri managed to kick it up and roll out of the way, though she gasped for breath. Being smothered by a huge pillow certainly wasn't fun.

"Hey wait, this pillow is pretty cool." Teribane noticed. "Black with green binary on it? Wow! That's pretty unique!"

"Yeah, glad you like it. Now shoo."

As she spoke, GrimMoody pointed to the back of the stage toward the projector screen. Out of nowhere grew a huge, swirling portal. With a wink from Moody, Mega Man and Proto Man snatched up Teribane and her pillow, throwing them both through to Teribane's proper dimension.

"Um," FanFicGuy tried to back away, but Bass held him too tight. "That doesn't hurt, does it?"

"I dunno. Never tried it." Moody said. "But to give you your present, we have a special guest. Come on in, Skull Man."

Skull Man stepped out onto the stage, solemnly heading for FanFicGuy. He held in his hands a little plush toy that looked exactly like him, buster, red eyes and all. The robot offered this to Guy, who accepted it with glee.

"Wow, thanks, Skull Man!" Guy squeezed the doll to his face. "I'll keep it forever!"

"And," Moody added. "As a bonus, your favorite robot master will now do you the honor of throwing your sorry butt out of my realm."

"What?" Guy gasped with excitement. "Really?"

Skull Man took FanFicGuy away from Bass. Then he snatched FanFicGuy by the collar of his shirt and his belt. Swinging him three times, on the forth go Skull Man tossed Guy through the air and right into the portal. FanFicGuy's voice could be heard before the portal sucked him completely away.

"THIS IS SO AWESOME...!"

And the portal disappeared, closing shut to the worlds of the fanfiction net authors. All the characters sighed with relief.

"Whew! Now that was something, wasn't it?" Moody said. "Oh well, now it's over. You guys weren't really going to betray me, were you?"

"I wasn't." Roll said. "After all, you did save us from that awful future with Dr. K."

"Yeah, even if you had to do it in the most horrible way possible." Proto Man added. "Besides, your story is over, so you can't torture us anymore. There's no need to betray you."

"I'm kinda sad there's not going to be any statues." Crystal Bot shrugged. "But you did imagine me, so I'll stick by you."

"I think this would be a good time to have a deleted scene." Crystal Man said. "It would make sense after all that action."

"Hm...let me check...nah, I don't have any 'good' ones left." GrimMoody said. "Um, here, I've got a few tidbits. The rest of you, get back into your chairs. Oh, Ping, thanks for your help. You can get back to operating the lights now. Skull Man, we've got some more guests, and you can tell them they're on after this bit of deleted scenes. And there we go. Auto, the clips, if you please!"

**"Hey, Roll..."**

**"EEEEKK!"**

**Jumping nearly two feet off the ground, Roll thudded back down right on her bum. By that time, if she hadn't caught a glimpse of Bass already, she would have known it was him by his harsh laughter. **

**"Ahahahaha!**

**Mega Man was in the main lab. For once, the lab wasn't looking like its normal self. For one, it was too dark, and the empty repair tables looked gloomy in the dim light - it wasn't good to waste electricity when no one was working. Yes, Auto was done with his massive work, finally, and had even gotten started on Fire Man and Snake Man, both of whom lay incomplete and unactivated in two of the rear tables. For now they were going to sit there. Auto's shop in town needed rebuilding, and with all his setbacks the green engineer wanted to get it going as fast as possible. It was a good source of income for the lab, and quite frankly they needed the money.**

**Mega Man wasn't thinking about money. He sat at the main computer, talking on the video phone with a surprisingly helmetless, brunet robot. They were both all smiles, and in the midst of a happy conversation.**

**"I was expecting Briggs' kids to be little terrors." Proto Man said. "But they aren't so bad. They seem to know how annoying their dad is. Except for Harry Jr...he's pretty much the spitting image of his father."**

**"Ouch, I'm so sorry." Mega Man winced with a smile. "I don't know, Mr. Briggs has never really been that much of a problem to me."**

**"That's because you're not his favorite." Proto Man retorted with a chuckle.**

**In that moment, as Bass found himself seeing Mega Man in a completely different light. Now, Bass had seen a picture of Ayumu Light before (mainly because Crystal Bot was so nosy) and he was able to see her looks in all three of the Light siblings. Rock, with his jet black hair and gentle features, looked the most like his "mother". It was easy to see the resemblance between Rock and Ayumu, and that made it very clear how much Thomas cared for his wife. However, in that moment, for the very first time, Bass could actually see a semblance of Dr. Light in the robot. It wasn't in the way Rock's eyes were shaped, and his nose was distinctly Asian. Yet there he was, Rock Light, somehow the son of his father.**

_**Why the hell am I thinking this crap?**_** Bass glanced once more over at Rock. **_**Oh hell, because it's true.**_

"These are just a few tidbits I cut for various reasons." GrimMoody said, sitting in one of the chairs left behind by the guest authors. "The first was just a bit where Bass jump-scares Roll. It was cute, but didn't really fit the mood of the chapter. The second is a 'meh' scene that's basically a first draft of what's there. The third...well, that was something I had in mind to be sort of literary."

"Literary?" Bass growled. "How that hell is _that _literary? I would never think something like that! And wipe that smirk on your face, Rock!"

"I didn't say anything." Mega Man grinned. "Not a word."

"Then stop talking now!"

"I did have a problem with letting you think something like that." GrimMoody nodded to Bass. "I don't feel I got the sentiment right. I mean, you might notice that Mega Man looks a little like Dr. Light, but you wouldn't phrase it that way. Thus, it was cut."

"Eh, I think he has Dr. Light's chin." Roll said leaned forward to get a better look at her brother as she teased him. "And his eye color."

"Ironically, _you_ look the most like Dr. Light." Mega Man said. "I think he was too sad to make someone who looked just like Mom."

"Why do you say that?" Bass snorted. "He made you, didn't he?"

"Y'know, GrimMoody." Rock rolled his eyes. "Feel free to put him in a tea dress now."

"Maybe later. For now, it's time for our next three guests to enter the stage. Everyone, please welcome, Mega Man X, Zero, and Axl!"

The stage actually erupted with genuine applause as the three Maverick Hunters entered the stage. GrimMoody vacated her chair and allowed X and Zero to sit in the center chairs.

"Axl, Axl!" Crystal Bot squealed. "You come sit by me!"

GrimMoody, ever helpful to her Mary-Sue, conjured up another poofy chair between Crystal and her father. Even before Axl sat down, Crystal Bot was scooting her chair closer. Bass winced, hoping she wouldn't say anything weird.

"I'd like to note, just for the heck of it, that these guys are from the original timeline, not my revised future." GrimMoody explained. "Everybody knows them from that universe, anyway. So guys, go ahead and introduce yourselves. Tell us a little about yourselves."

"Hello, everyone, I'm Mega Man X." X said to the camera. "Though I guess you already know that, since you're in the Mega Man section of fanfiction net. I mean, why else would you be reading a Mega Man story if you didn't know about me? I don't think there's a lot of people who are only familiar with classic and not the later games."

"Actually, I was one of those until I wrote this story." Moody mentioned. "Just go on with it."

"Um, okay. So anyway, even though I'm the first advanced robot Dr. Cain discovered in the X series, I didn't actually join Maverick Hunters until a year or two before Zero was discovered. I joined because reploid crime was rising, and well, I just felt I couldn't stay on the sidelines. In my spare time, I like to read history books, play video games, and sing karaoke."

"Um...hi, I'm Zero..." Zero shifted awkwardly in his seat. "I guess I'll introduce myself, even though I've already been in two of these stories and most of you know who I am anyway. And most of you know my background too. I'm not the sort of person with a lot of surprises...what you see is what you get. I'm just a passionate Maverick Hunter, and when I do have free time, I like to draw, study Japanese caligraphy, maybe play video games, and try to stop X from singing karaoke."

"Hey, everyone!" Crystal Bot still had hold of Axl's right hand, so he waved his left one. "I'm Axl, and I'm not going to complain about introducing myself, because I'm not as popular as these guys are. But I will be someday, if people can get over the trainwreck that was Mega Man X7. I do _not _sound like that! Anyway, in my free time, I like to play video games, have target practice, and spar with other Hunters."

"So how did you guys feel about my story?"

"I actually sort of liked it." X said. "It's sad and dramatic in the right places."

"Wait, what?" Bass said. "You actually like her nonsense?"

"Sure. I mean, there are several issues with editing, grammar, spelling, plotblocking..."

"That's enough, X." GrimMoody warned.

"...Characterization, game canon, and usage of reviewer Mavericks." X finished without even acknowledging the author. "Oh, and I thought it was silly that she showed up in Afterlife, but she changed the bleak future so I'm not complaining."

"I didn't care for the story." Zero sighed. "Much of it has to do with my past, and I don't like talking about that. My favorite was Okkusenman, but even that one is kind of spoiled because I'm mentioned near the end. You should take it as a compliment that I tried, GrimMoody. Normally I stay as far as possible from stories on fanfiction net. It's almost impossible to find a story about me that isn't very depressing. Normally I read some of Teribane's work, because she writes on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, and that cartoon has nothing to do with the normal universe."

"I...didn't read it." Axl confessed with a sheepish grin. "I mean, I read a little bit, but how can I read when I'm always hunting or playing video games with X? I liked the part where Zero and Bass are cursing at each other. Now that was funny! Oh, and I liked finding out where I really come from. That was cool. It's nice being based on first generation robots!"

"I'm really sad I didn't get to be in your story." Crystal Bot said. "But I'm so happy I finally get to meet you! Oh, and you can meet my father, Crystal Man!"

"Oh?" Axl turned to Crystal Man with a bit of devilish gleam in his eye. "So I guess this means you're my grandfather!"

Bass groaned loudly, and his face fell into his palm with a loud smack. "What Axl means to say is that his creator dug me and Crystal Bot out of the dirt and decided to build a robot based on us. Axl, I've warned you before..."

"Aw, I'm never going to get over how cute that is!" Roll squealed. "Bass being a dad is so adorable! Well, it is because he's a robot. If he were a human...well, I wouldn't want to know how his kid would turn out."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Roll" Bass growled.

"Roll," Mega Man shook his head. "Bass and Crystal Man were both created by Wily, making Crystal Bot Bass' niece!"

"Oh..." Roll blushed. "I didn't think of it like that."

"Forte and I are not brothers." Crystal Man said abruptly. "Though Dr. Wily is responsible for the creation of both of us, we are only related in an engineering sense."

"What do you mean?" Rock asked.

"It is like you in your lab." the shiny-bot continued. "You, Blues, and Roll were all created by Dr. Light, but Dr. Light also created and designed many other robots that were always intended to be sold commercially. Dr. Light would not so much as imagine selling you. You three are the most complex and best cared for of all the Light robots, and it is similar with those created by Dr. Wily. Most of his robots, myself included, were mere soldiers for his cause. Nay, not soldiers. Lackeys, if you will. Though I may have lost years of my memory, I can still recall the day when Dr. Wily invented fortenium. He refused to engineer anything but the best for his new invention, and would not place it in a simple lackey. I remember those days when Wily feverishly designed his 'greatest project to date', and granted him free will beyond that of all the other Wily numbers. Though Wily himself would not have called Forte a son, the efforts he made in creating Bass' AI went far beyond the greatest of the Team Wily numbers. Wily would have no child from the fear such a child would rebel against him and refuse to be what Wily intended it to become. It is for this reason I chose Bass to free my Team members and my daughter, because he was the only robot with both the desire and the ability to be free from Wily's foolish ideals."

"But...but..." Roll protested. "Dr. Light appreciated all of his creations."

"I am certain he did, for that is the kind of man he is." Crystal Man nodded. "But such feelings do the gods have for their inferior creations. They might have looked upon a great forest, a flock of geese, and newborn lion cubs all with the same concern and delight, but it is into man that the gods' primary efforts focused. Despite the variety of life upon the earth, it is but one species that is the highest and the only one that can lift its eyes and behold heaven. Plants and animals are mere creations of the gods; mankind is their child."

Bass sat in his chair with a sour look in his face, and though he sputtered, he couldn't find the right words to speak. It was just as well. All he had on his mind were very colorful metaphorical statements for all the ways he now hated Crystal Man, especially since he couldn't find a logical way to disagree with Crystal Man. The Team 5 robot got the idea from Bass' eyes anyway.

"I am sorry, but this is true." Crystal Man said. "Wily's heart and soul went into building you, and you even resemble him a little - a very little, as fortunately for your sake Wily's view of his own earthy beauty was far higher than what he might have seen had he looked in a mirror. I am afraid your only true brother is Zero, as Wily surely granted him the time and attention he did you."

Zero and Bass hardly dared to stare at each other. Bass bared a fang as he gradually turned to the blonde-bot, glaring. Zero uncomfortably turned away with a sigh. X glared back at Bass for him.

"So you're saying that Dr. Wily isn't really my grandpa?" Crystal Bot asked.

"No. He was merely my creator."

"Oh." the girl-bot put a finger to her chin. "I guess I didn't really need to see him in the hospital then..."

Crystal Man chuckled. "No, no, my dear, do not be ashamed of the mercy in your heart. It is very becoming of a young lady, the subject of it deserving or no."

"Aw," Crystal Bot giggled. "You're so sweet, Daddy."

Mega Man paid little attention to the conversation of the crystal robots. Instead he kept looking at the now very much grumpy Bass, and he tried to think of some way to cheer him up. And then it hit him.

"Hey Bass," Mega Man said. "There's a bright side to all of this. Now nobody can say that Aqua Man is your brother."

The anger in Bass' face turned to thoughtfulness, and finally he laughed. "Ha, and not Top Man or Spring Man either. Heh, that's something."

"Aw, but that still means Wily's my grandfather." Axl joked. "Because of Bass if not because of Crystal Man."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Mega Man X turned to GrimMoody. "This conversation is getting worse by the second."

"Okay." the author agreed. "I just remembered that I haven't asked you my standard questions! So guys, what's your favorite color?"

"Red." said X.

"Blue." said Zero.

"I dunno," Axl thought about it a second. "Oh wait, yeah, I like orange, red and yellow. The colors of fire! Oh, and gold is cool too. Someday I'm going to get myself a gold-plated gun. That would be awesome!"

"Alright, and who would you guys consider your heroes?"

"Aw, what kind of question is that?" Axl complained. "Well...I guess I have to say X and Zero. Zero believed in me when nobody else would, and X let me join the Hunters. And definitely Red...I miss him a lot. If it weren't for him, I might have been stolen by Mavericks!"

"I'd have to say Zero." X turned to his friend and smiled. "I mean, we've saved each other so many times, it might as well be him."

"This is going to sound really weird." Zero said slowly. "But in a way...I'd have to say Sigma."

"WHAT?" exclaimed everybody on the stage. X's eyes went wide in horror.

"It's not like you think." Zero said quietly. "It's just that, if it hadn't been for Sigma, I would have killed the entire Maverick Hunters organization. I'm much more powerful than he is, and if I had been the villain instead of him, things would have been much worse. Besides-" here he lifted his head and smiled. "I wouldn't have been able to be your friend."

"Considering that Sigma led to the eventually extinction of reploids and humankind." Bass muttered. "It couldn't have been any worse for the world if you were the evil one."

"Shut up, Bass." X snapped. "Don't talk like that!"

"Freedom of speech, you bastard. Freedom of speech."

"Forget I said anything." Zero sank deeper into his seat. "Moody, please move on to the next question."

"Actually...that's kind of it." GrimMoody answered. "I exposed so much of your story in Afterlife that I'm not sure what there is to say. Besides, this Bonus Features has gone on so long, it's about time I started to wrap it up."

"I have a question." X said. "It's about your future timeline. Because the future you caused is so different from the one that Dr. K gave us, well...everyone will be so different. Especially me and Zero. I mean, I was only supposed to be tested for thirty years, not a century. And Zero will have basically a fresh start. No Sigma virus, and no pre-programmed violence. That's bound to make us different people."

"Only sort of." GrimMoody replied. "After all, your AI won't be any different. But yeah, I actually do have one last deleted scene. It's from the chapter where I last talk to Roll. I was going to include it there, but the problem is I didn't want Roll to know how Zero was going to end up alive. The scene shows that it's Crystal Bot's doing, and that just seemed tacky to give it away. However, I still consider this scene more or less canon to the plot - I wasn't quite happy with how the writing turned out, but the same situation basically happened."

**GrimMoody smiled. "But don't worry about that either. You've already saved him."**

**"I have? But how?"**

**"You said the right words. It's like I was saying about the good barista. You say the right words and good things come to pass. As it so happened, you said the right words to the right person. I'm not going to tell you now, but you'll find out a little bit after Dr. Light comes back. That's when Zero wakes up. Here, I'll show you a little bit."**

**GrimMoody walked sideways a couple of steps, then traced a large rectangle in the air. A field of black appeared once the tracing was complete, and Roll recognised it as the same screen in which she had watched Dr. K's future. She shuddered automatically, but patiently waited. Colors began to appear on the screen, slowly forming the image of Zero sitting on the edge of Kauffman Tower. He gazed downwards at the people moving about, but he himself did nothing. He just sat there in confusion, not moving at all.**

**Zero's lips moved. He was speaking quietly to himself, trying to figure out something. Whatever he was saying didn't seem to comfort him. With a sigh, Zero grew silent and kicked his legs a little bit. He looked down at the road again, staring at the mass of cars, trucks, and a few motorcycles passing by below him. It was a crowded day in Monstropolis, and the entire city was buzzing with life. Across the street, Zero could see through the window of an office. It was a meeting room, and several people were crowded around a table. They didn't notice him, and so they weren't afraid. But the question was, did he want them to be?**

**A blue teleport beam streaked downward behind Zero. Zero turned to watch as Mega Man X materialized. The first robot didn't move, and for a minute, neither did X. Zero only seemed more confused, and conflicting emotions passed across his face. Nothing happened for a full minute. Getting tired of the staredown, Zero turned away and looked back down at the street. **

**"I know why you're here. You're here to kill me." Zero said. He pointed in different directions as he continued to speak. "Down that street is Mega Man. Gravity Man and Gyro Man are over that way. Bass is in the street in front of us. I remember him. He's not a very good fighter. But you are. That's what I heard, anyway."**

**"Heard from who?" Mega Man X asked, daring to approach.**

**"My creator. He left a bunch of memories in my head. He says you're bad, and I have to kill you."**

**"Do you want to?" **

**Zero paused. He gave this question considerable thought, straining his mind as he searched for an answer. Finally, he shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know what I want."**

**"Will you talk to me for a minute?"**

**The red robot turned around again, glaring a little. "Aren't you supposed to destroy me because I'm a threat to your happy little world?"**

**"Well, not destroy." X said. "They told me to 'neutralize the threat'. I guess that could mean destroying you, but if you're not a threat then I don't have to."**

**"Oh." Zero blinked, and the sternness turned into a blank expression. "That makes sense. I guess you can talk to me, if you want."**

**Mega Man X sat beside Zero, making sure not to be too close. That might make Zero nervous. X settled down, trying to be as calm as possible. He stared at Zero. Zero didn't look like the robot X had seen in his memories. This Zero wasn't shooting things or cutting them with a sword. In fact, he didn't seem to have a sword with him at all. Zero didn't look at the more advanced blue bomber, but he knew he was being stared at. **

**"So what are you doing out here?" X asked. **

**"I'm just looking, I guess." Zero replied. "I don't really know what to do. Look at those little people down there. My creator said I'm supposed to hate them. He says I'm supposed to destroy good things, especially you. But you like those people, don't you?"**

**"Sure, I do." X nodded. "Why wouldn't I?"**

**This answer seemed to surprise Zero, and he startled. "What? Why would you like them? You can't know all of them."**

**"Well, yeah, but...they're just people, like everyone else. They just want to have a happy life and make the world different from when they came into it. That's how I feel too. I want to make the world a better place." X paused a minute, glancing sideways at the Wily-bot. "So what do you want?"**

**"Dr. Wily wants me to destroy things. You, your brothers, and my brother too. But Crystal Bot said I was supposed to be nice. She told me I was supposed to be a good guy. She said I was supposed to be your friend."**

**"Is that what you want?"**

**Zero uncomfortably shifted. "I...don't know. I don't really know much of anything. I just know what I've been told: a lot about you and your friends, a bunch of stories, and a lot about a place called Korea. It's a lot of information, but I don't know what to make of it."**

**"It sounds like you need to do things instead of just being told." X suggested. "After all, nobody really knows what life is about unless they live it. Anyway, that's what Dr. Light says."**

**"So you're doing what he tells you?"**

**X opened his mouth, but suddenly stopped. Zero was right. "Well, I guess so. But I don't know very much either. I've only been activated for three months. Dr. Light is really smart, so I want to listen to him. He trained me to be able to handle life on my own, but I have to live it too. Hey, maybe you can come back to the lab. You can ask Dr. Light what to do."**

**The blonde robot frowned. "I'm not your friend, X."**

**"You can be if you want. You don't really want to kill me, do you?"**

**Zero thought about this a minute. After a time, he shrugged. "I don't know."**

**"Well, how about this. You can come to the lab with me and then be my friend for a while." X explained. "You might like it. If you change your mind, you can always kill me later."**

**"You want to be killed?"**

**"Well, no. But I figure if you get to know me, you won't want to."**

**Zero blinked. He turned away from X for a moment, going to look at the people of the city once more. His thoughts took him away to other places that X couldn't go. So X just turned and looked at the city too. He heard the sound of the train coming in the distance. It seemed strange that such an old form of conveyence hadn't gone out of style yet.**

**"Does that rail there look loose to you?" Zero asked, pointing down at the tracks over a bridge. "It looks like some spikes are missing."**

**X increased his zoom feature to see what Zero was talking about. Sure enough, the bridge that went over Monstropolis' busiest highway held the train's railing, and a piece of the rail was bent away from the rest of it. At that distance, it was hard to tell, but something was clearly wrong with it.**

**"Oh no!" X jumped up, clearly unafraid of being so close to the edge of the building. "I've got to stop that train!"**

**X jumped off and slid down the building, hanging on to the side so that he didn't fall too fast and hurt himself. Immediately he sent out several signals. They went out to the police, emergency medical services, and the conductor of the train. They had to know what was going on, especially if he didn't get there in time.**

**Dodging both automobile and foot traffic, X jumped and dashed his way over to the bridge. One final jump and he was on the track. Much to his horror, the train was a lot closer than he thought. Without hesitation, X ran toward it. The squealing of its brakes filled the air, but it often took more than a mile for a train to fully stop. Dashing forward, X smacked into the train. He held hard to the front of it, engaging his dash boosters to give himself as much push as possible. Still, the train ground onwards, pushing against X with its mighty bulk. It slowed, but not soon enough. They were coming upon the missing rail-**

_**Scrunch!**_

**Before X knew what was going on (he was concentrating very hard) the train was suddenly going even slower. It was still moving as it came to the bent railing, but the speed was slow enough so that nothing more happened than simply falling off the track. This made the train shake suddenly, and Mega Man X found himself slipping backwards. Before he could fall off the bridge, a red arm grabbed his, and Zero pulled him back. **

**"There you go." Zero said, suddenly getting a little shy. "The train's safe now."**

**"Well...thanks for your help!" X smiled. "I thought that was going to turn out a lot worse."**

**"What do we do now?"**

**"I guess we need to talk to the police and tell them what happened." X walked over to the side of the train to see what he could see of the broken train track. "Then we ask if anybody on the train is hurt."**

**"Okay." Zero shrugged. "I don't have anything better to do."**

"So, as you can see, not a very eloquently written scene." Moody admitted. "I wasn't feeling inspired that day, and it shows. Actually, the final chapter turned out to be fairly different than what I wanted it to be, as I just didn't feel inspired to create a parallel to the end of Afterlife, like I intended. I figured it was better to not include lots of flashforwards rather than try something overambitious to my energy. Now I really want to go back and edit it, which I will do at some point. I'll post an extra chapter when that happens."

"Not likely, with your track record." Proto Man remarked.

"Hey, why do you think it took so long to get to the Bonus Features? I wanted to get back into the swing of things."

"That scene seems so weird to me." said X, who still stared at the projector screen. "I'm so naiive there..."

"I think I'm pretty accurate." Zero chuckled. "I don't seem that much different at all. Just...clean."

"What about ME?" Axl exclaimed. "Don't I get a scene?"

"You're not that much different in either universe." the author laughed. "Actually, you're the Hunter most resistant to fear and depression. Therefore, you'll basically be the same in my future as in Dr. K's."

"Be nice and give Axl-kun a scene." Crystal Bot scolded. "He's so cute, how can you not?"

"Cute? I'm not cute!"

"Oh?" Crystal Bot looked at him with since astonishment. "Then why do you have cute little kitty ears on your helmet?"

Everyone laughed as Axl reached up and covered the offensive decorations with his hands. He had such a cute pout.

"Heh, alright, I'll whip him up a scene." GrimMoody snapped her fingers. "Here we go!"

**It was Bass, and yet it was sort of not Bass. Sure, the head-fins were still there, but much of his armor had been changed. The colors seemed richer, and the angles of his arms and legs were sharper. His normally thick wrists were a couple of inches skinnier, but to look at him no one would think that would hurt his power level. But in any case, the face was the same as it had always been. At the moment, that face was calmly examining the innards of a book, **_**Lt. Bucher: My Story**_**, and to judge by the occasional grunts Bass emitted, it was an engrossing book. So Bass leaned forward in his rather luxurious leather reading chair to concentrate. **

**The room itself was large. Vast, even. It had enough square footage for a large ballroom, and it had to be at least two stories high. Books lined the three walls forward, behind, and to the right of Bass. The left side was a massive double-sided window, which from the outside of the lab looked like nothing more than a simple wall. Bass liked to sit near to the window, watch the rural California hills (if his book was boring), and let the outside light wash over his raised sitting platform. As if to emphasize the enforced lonliness, the only chair on the hardwood stage was Bass'. Even if a guest made it into that room, which they weren't likely to do, they would get the message rather quickly that only one ego was allowed. **

**Yes, this was Crystal Bot's lab, or so it was called, even though it was as much Bass' home as hers. Bass didn't care what they called it so long as he got his library. Ever since the days he was forced to stay in a skull-shaped castle with a bunch of robot masters, he treasured his solitude, and despite the fact he was no longer imprisoned, he still preferred to be alone. **

**Today, however, this was not going to be the case. The massive door to his right lifted open, making one wonder who would set computer encoding on a library door. In popped a person who must have been Crystal Bot. She also was a little different. The armor on her arms and legs seemed to have sharper edges, and also to be slightly bigger. As for her old clothes, they had been exchanged for a forest green dress that reached just below her knees, and had a cinched, camisa top with little frilly sleeves that mostly covered her shoulder crystals. Also, Sonata's hair seemed wavier. It bounced as she merrily hopped her way across the room and up the few steps to where Bass sat.**

**"Happy Birthday to you, Forte-kun!" the girl-bot exclaimed. **

**"Huh. Since when do you celebrate birthdays?" Bass looked up from his book. "You have great timing. You've interrupted me right at the part where the Pueblo gets captured."**

**"Silly Forte-**_**shee**_**." Crystal Bot laughed. "Today's not just your birthday, it's your one hundredth birthday! You're officially a century old today!"**

**"Ugh," Bass teased, setting the book in his lap. "Are you trying to say I'm obsolete?"**

**"As if I'd ever let you get that way." she poked him in the nose. "You, mister, got a call today from a certain Dr. Reiko Inafune. Now, I thought that was weird, because Inafune Institute never talks to any other lab if they can help it. She's very introverted, you know, except I got to talk to her at a conference earlier this year. And so this morning, when her name pops up on the vid phone, I get all happy and excited. But no, you stinker, the call turned out to be about **_**you**_**. So not fair." Crystal Bot finished with a wink.**

**"I don't care about talking to any scientist. That's your business."**

**"Exactly my point! But no, her robot Casper called and told me that we're both invited over to her lab tonight, because you, mister, have a birthday present that she built for you."**

**"What?" Bass grinned. "No way. And I don't even know this chick."**

**"I dunno." Crystal Bot shrugged. "She said she was really inspired by us, and she wants us to see this thing she's made. Casper wouldn't tell me what it was. It's a surprise."**

**"Ugh, red alert!" Bass suddenly got skeptical. "So this doctor barely knows you and she's supposed to be inspired by us? I think we've got a crazy on our hands. And it's not as if I like surprises."**

**"So are we going or what?"**

**"Sure. Why not? If it's a trap, I'll fight my way out of it."**

**"Says the century old robot." Crystal Bot teased.**

**"Keep talking like that and see what happens." Bass faintly smiled. "Now call Casper back and tell him we're going."**

**-t-**

**"I didn't think so many people would be here." Crystal Bot whispered. "I would've worn something different if I knew."**

**Bass hadn't been expecting the crowd either. As far as either robot was concerned, they figured it was just going to be a casual visit to Inafune Institute. They didn't expect that they would be greeted at the door, only to be rushed to the front of a crowded auditorium (Reiko had one in her lab?) and made to sit before a curtained stage. Sure, Bass enjoyed the applause as they came in, but it was weird. This, however, really only irritated Crystal Bot.**

**"Relax." Bass whispered back. "Nobody cares about what robots wear. Just enjoy it. She's probably going to do something in my honor."**

**They were whispering because the ceremony that Dr. Inafune planned had already begun. This event, according to the programs handed out, was something done by Inafune Institute once a year to review their lab's progress. Even though Reiko had moved the event earlier in the year to coincide with Bass' birthday, she still had to get her other lab demos out of the way. One of her assistants, Dr. Hardgrove, was explaining how he was going to cut down on glare from computer screens. It bored Bass to tears (Crystal Bot was enraptured) but he just re-read one of his books in his head until Dr. Inafune herself came onstage.**

**"Welcome, everyone! Scientist and technician alike!" said the spunky, short-haired scientist. She waved at the crowd enthusiastically. "Isn't it about time we got to the main feature of the night? Now, why don't we have our guests of honor come on stage? Everyone please give a round of applause to Bass and Crystal Bot!"**

**A security-bot pointed them to the stairs, and Bass near about strained his face smiling as he graciously, but gratefully allowed his ego to feed on the audience's love. Crystal Bot shyly followed her boss, as there seemed no way of getting out of the eyes of the crowd. Both of them stepped to the center of the stage, where Dr. Inafune kept an enclosed automated machine. It's front glass was too dark to see anything, but Crystal Bot tried to look nonetheless.**

**"And so everyone, Mr. Bass here is one hundred years old as of today!" Reiko announced.**

**As she paused for the crowd to clap once more, Bass turned to Crystal Bot with a curious eye. The tech-bot shook her head no; she hadn't told Inafune about his birthday.**

**"As some of you know," Dr. Inafune continued. "I have been working on new technology that will allow a robot to change its own shape! To mold its metal into the shape of something else entirely! Everyone said I was crazy, and well, I **_**am**_** crazy, but I'm also right! I have created a prototype that will shatter all your preconceptions of what a robot can do!"**

**The two guests on stage glanced at each other nervously. Crystal Bot winced; her boss' fake smile was starting to fade.**

**"And that brings me back to these two," Reiko gestured toward them. "Bass and his companion Crystal Bot served as the artistic basis for this next leap into the future, because of all they've done for society in the past century. The past shall not be forgotten, even in the future!"**

_**" - I swear to God, Sonata, - " **_**Bass told her on his comm. **_**" - If she's saying I'm obsolete... - "**_

**"And so, I bring to you, my greatest creation!" Reiko turned to the robots. "Bass, would you do the honors?"**

**"Um, sure..."**

**Bass very reluctantly pressed the open button on the automated machine. Out came...a robot. It had navy blue armor, all covered in red stripes. A poof of reddish-brown hair stuck out the back of its head under its stylish helmet. It had one of the most pleasant, happy faces that Bass had ever seen, and he couldn't believe it. He turned to Crystal Bot in horror, only to realize that its was incredibly similar to hers.**

**"What is this?" Bass could only barely keep the growl out of his voice.**

**"Hi, I'm Axl!" said the robot in a remarkably cheery voice. "And I'm Dr. Inafune's new robot. I can take the shape of any robot I want! Well, if they're my size, anyway."**

**"I based him on the both of you!" Dr. Inafune explained. "The shape overall is Bass' general armor type, as well as some references to his headfins. Not a direct rip-off, of course. And for you, Crystal Bot, I was a little more referencial. The crystals in the helmet and chest are your design elements, and since you have a lovely red belt, I took the red stripe element and ran with it!"**

**"And...she also has my face." Crystal Bot said slowly. **

**"She?" Axl protested. "I'm a guy!"**

**"Oh, OH. Excuse me." Crystal Bot politely laughed along with the audience. "I see the doctor hasn't finished adjusting your voice. It can be...tricky."**

**"Isn't it such an honor to have him designed after you?" Inafune offered. "It's like you're his actual parents!"**

**That was it. Bass wasn't built with many manners, and he hadn't collected too much even in a century. This was just too much, and Inafune would soon regret ever inviting them to her lab.**

**"What the hell is this?" Bass snarled. "You build this girly-looking piece of crap based on **_**me**_**? What am I supposed to think? That you're some great genius and I should be honored that you ripped off my design? And it's some stupid prototype? Look, if you want something based off me, then build something that doesn't suck and doesn't look like some chick soldier wannabe. Come on, Crystal, let's go!"**

**Bass stormed off the stage, leaving his tech-bot to look apologetically at the audience before rushing off to follow him. Before long, both robots had made their way out of the building and headed for the parking lot, where teleportation was allowed.**

**"Wait, wait!"**

**If the look on Bass' face was directed towards the oncoming voice then surely the source of it would have run. Thankfully, Bass managed to pull half his face into an ever so slightly more polite direction. And then he turned to Axl. If he hadn't been so angry, he might have been impressed that Axl dared to come after him.**

**"What do you want?"**

**"I...I want you to know," Axl stammered. "That this wasn't my idea. I didn't think it was a good idea to introduce me to you like this. I told her to think about it some more. But...I'm her robot, so-"**

**"So you follow along with something stupid." Bass hmphed and shook his head. "You pathetic thing."**

**"Hey! You don't even know me!" Axl huffed. "Besides, I'm not even a day old. Gimmie a break, here! I'm new to the world!"**

**"Ugh, no," Bass felt like throwing up. "She gave you the same birthday as me. Sonata, please tell me there's something we can sue Inafune for."**

**"Well..." Crystal Bot was always reluctantly to talk when Bass got that angry. "We might be able to do it on design, but he's not really close enough. I'll have to call a lawyer."**

**"Do it, as soon as possible. She's not getting away with building this crap." Bass snarled and activated his teleporter. "Now let's go!"**

**"No, wait!" Axl tried again.**

**"Look you," Bass jammed a finger in his face. "I don't want to ever-"**

**"I DIDN'T ASK TO BE BUILT!" Axl yelled, his face going red. "I didn't ask Inafune to base me off you! I'm sorry I'm not what you want or expect, but...I really liked you guys. Since I woke up today I wanted to be like you, Bass. You're so cool!" **

**"That's nice, fanboy." Bass growled. "Now leave me alone."**

**"No!" Axl's face suddenly grew darker - which didn't have much of an affect as it was pretty adorable in the first place. "You can't call me crap and get away with it! I'm not crap and I can prove it any day of the week! I...I challenge you to a fight! Tomorrow in the desert! You better be there, you...you...obsolete hunk of junk!"**

**Bass was up in Axl's space before the latter could even wince. He glared straight into Axl's attempt at intimidating eyes, then hmphed and activated his comm. "Fine. Here are the coordinates. Meet me there so I can beat the motor oil out of you."**

**With that, Bass teleported out. Axl, still shaking a little, turned towards his "mother". Crystal Bot flinched at his glance, but examined him a moment. She tilted her head, biting her lip a bit. And then she smiled.**

**"Y'know," she said. "It's kinda cute how brave you are."**

**And she teleported out.**

The stage burst out into laughter, even Bass, surprisingly. Not Axl of course, though he smiled a bit as he blushed. It was just too silly.

"Did you have to make it that awkward?" he said. "Please tell me that me and Bass get along after this."

"It takes a while." GrimMoody nodded. "But after a while, Bass sees your talent and gets used to you. Bass is the sort of guy really moved by flattery, and considering you kind of follow him around like a lost puppy dog, he can't help but take you under his wing. And yes, Bass, since I know you're going to ask this, you win the challenge."

"Not that my victory was ever in doubt." Bass grinned.

"Why am I acting like that?" Crystal Bot wrinkled her nose. "Don't I like Axl?"

"You're weirded out by him." the author said. "Well, not him exactly, but more the notion of having a kid. You can't help but equivocate it to human childbirth. That, and Dr. Inafune did pick the most awkward way to introduce Axl possible. Besides, it's not like you're going to remember this Bonus Features afterward."

"Ugh. Please no more talking of the birds and bees." Sonata squinted her eyes tightly shut. "Ew. Yuck. Thinking of shiny things...and...there! So what were we talking about again?"

"We were talking about the future." X replied. "So Moody, what is it going to be like? I mean, no Maverick Hunters, no Mavericks...I can hardly imagine a world like that."

"Well, you'll have to because I sure ain't gonna." Grimm snorted. "I mean, there's still going to be a Maverick Hunters because reploid crime won't be nonexistent, but aside from that, the future's something you're gonna have to figure out. You were talking about Utopia or somesuch crap all the time. Now's the time to build it. Well, actually, now's the time to say thank you to the readers, because we're coming to the end of Bonus Features-"

"Hey wait," Mega Man exclaimed. "You can't end it now! We have to do something! We have to...have a singing contest!"

"A what?" Zero lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah, a contest! We'll be in groups. I'll be with X."

"Yes, and we'll sing Poi Poi Peace!" X said. "I just love that song!"

"Um, X," Zero winced. "You know, you're my friend so I have to say this: you're not really that great of a singer."

"What? What are you talking about?" X said. "The people at the karaoke bar love me!"

"Yeah, because you go a lot and they have private rooms. I'm sure GrimMoody's audience doesn't want to hear you sing."

"Yeah, and this is a writing format." Moody scoffed. "How am I supposed to write singing?"

"Ooh, but a contest would be so nice!" Roll exclaimed. "Sona-chan, me and you are going to be in a group! It's like we're the Digital Sweethearts band."

"Yes!" Crystal Bot clapped her hands. "Oh, GrimMoody! Please conjure up Splash Woman so that she can sing with us!"

"What the crap?" The author shook her head. "Didn't you just hear me? There's no way to show singing in writ-"

"Did someone call me?"

The voice of Splash Woman as she entered the stage was as musical as if she were already singing. She came in on a small, motorized pedestal, and it had a small stool atop it with little arms for maneuverability. Splash Woman swung her tail merrily as she rolled in next to Roll's chair. Even though her "hair" was a helmet, somehow the mer-bot had found a top hat that could actually fit her, and she cocked it to the side mischeviously.

"If we're going to be in a singing contest." Splash Woman winked at the camera. "Then we simply _must_ do Puttin' on the Ritz. I adore that song."

"Ooh, yay!" Sonata squealed. "Top hats for all!"

"NO!" GrimMoody stomped her foot. "You can't do that! Not only is posting lyrics on fanfiction net against the guidelines, it's probably copyright infringement of some kind!"

"Hey wait! You pathetic goody guys can't have a singing contest and not include US!"

Everyone's head snapped over to the projector screen, and it displayed a grand, old timey country bar, complete with horns on the walls, a cactus in a corner, and a jukebox in the back. Leaning against a bar in the foreground were Signas and Sigma. Many beer bottles lay strewn out before them, and Signas lay half slump over the bar. Sigma, on the other hand, was grinning mightily. He lifted a beer as if to make a toast.

"Aw, crap." GrimMoody paled. "It's the Cain brothers, and they're calling from the alternate universe where robots can get drunk."

"That's right!" Sigma pounded his beer on the bar. "Luminous Sigma and Excelsior Signas demand to enter your singing competition to prove our immense and altogether superior talent!"

"No, I'm afraid you misheard." Moody huffed. "There isn't going to be a singing contest."

"Will someone shut up your human already?" Sigma retorted. "We're going to sing, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Um, Signas..." Zero uncertainly asked. "How many beers did you have?"

It took the Maverick Hunter leader a bit to answer. He slowly lifted his chin off the bar, then even more slowly lifted his hand to the air and pointed up his index finger.

"I had...*burp*...this many. And then I had this many." Signas lifted his lone finger again. "And then this many...and then this many...and then, and then...I need to sing off the alko...the aller...the ahco, the ah...the beer."

"Shh, shh, dear brother." Nobody was sure if Sigma was being sarcastic or not. "You'll get to sing soon. Lord Sigma decrees it."

"I guess that's that!" X couldn't help but laugh as he turned to Zero. "Well, I guess since they're singing, you have to sing also. You have a great voice. It's even better than mine!"

"Like that's hard to do." Zero smiled. "Do I have to?"

"Y'know Bass..." Roll grinned. "You should totally be on the same team as Zero."

"Wait, what?" The black and gold robot growled at her. "There's no way I'm going to be singing in your little contest at all, much less with _him_."

"Aw, come on," Crystal Bot persisted. "You have a great voice!"

"Leave him alone, Sona-chan." Roll teased. "He's probably just afraid that Zero's going to outshine you."

"I don't want to sing with you anyway." Zero scoffed. "I can sing Bohemian Rhapsody just fine alone."

"Wait, you're going to sing that?" Bass almost jumped from his seat. "No way! I was going to sing that one!"

"Says Mr. 'there's no way I'm singing'." Crystal Bot teased.

"Look, if I'm going to be in your stupid contest, then I'm going to sing that song, and I'm sure I'm way better than Zero at it. There's no way in hell pretty boy over here can hit the high notes right."

"We'll just see about that, won't we?" Zero said. "Looks like were in the same group. Try not to drag down my performance any."

Proto Man glanced across the stage at Axl. "Well, it looks like we're in a group. Can you sing?"

"I'm okay." Axl shrugged. "I'm really better at playing the guitar."

"Huh, me too. I guess that makes us a good team."

"Dad, what group are you going to join?" Crystal Bot asked.

"None. I shall the judge." Crystal Man stood up. "I don't think there is a need for complications. If we had just a couple microphones for the front of the stage, it should be suitable."

"You guys are going to get me in trouble!" GrimMoody exclaimed. "How am I supposed to write this?"

"Hey Rock," Bass said as he stood up to get a microphone stand. "Remember when we killed GrimMoody and she actually went away for a while?"

"Oh yeah." Rock grinned as he too got up. "It didn't actually hurt her, so I guess it's okay."

"Yeah, and remember how I punished you?" Moody retorted. "But, as I see you're pretty obstinate, I'm cutting away. Have your contest all you want. Just don't expect the audience to see it. Auto, cut to camera 2!"

All of a sudden, the stage and everyone on it disappeared. In its place came the black and white static of an old TV, frequently called "snow". But, since you are likely a young person with no knowledge of such antiquted and downright oldfangled matters, the image instantly cuts to black, then fades into...a commercial? In the middle of a large studio with wooden floors and large windows stood Top Man, grinning at the camera with his hands on his hips. About a dozen attractive men and women in colorful gym clothes stand around and behind him.

"Hello, America, it's time to get fit!" Top Man shouted. "And if you're going to be thin, you've got to Top Spin!"

With the flick of Top Man's hand, all of the fit people started to spin around. Top Man was of course the fastest of them all, but he stopped early to speak to the camera.

"Are you feeling flab? Get fab! So drained of energy you can't get off the ground? Then it's time to spin around!" Top Man continued as shots of spinning fit people sequence. "Lose the blues and get in the game with the all new Top Man's Super Top Spin Workout! You'll spin to the left, you'll spin to the right, and then you'll feel alright! Try it on one leg, try it on two, and if you've go three then try that too! You can order our double DVD pack of exclusive Top Spin exercises, set 1 and set 2, for the low, low price of 5.99, plus shipping and handling. Look your best, outspin the rest! You've never lost calories quite like this before, results guaranteed!"

Everything snapped back into snow for just a minute and then it was back to the Bonus Features show. GrimMoody popped up back on the stage with a sick look on her face.

"Ugh, sorry about that, guys," GrimMoody said into the camera. "I mean, dang, what in the world? I'm sure someone doing a Top Spin exercise routine would lose weight, but only from hurling. Eh, let's get back to these guys. I used my author controls to speed time up, so they're done...by now? Uh..."

As GrimMoody looked around, she couldn't help but notice that it was very silent. Everyone was there on stage, but all completely silent. Or mostly so, as Roll or Crystal Bot would sniff as if they looked like they had been crying. The others looked tragic as well. Proto Man refused to look up, and Axl and X whispered to each other in only slightly audible tones. A whole flurry of conflicted emotions battled it out over Splash Woman's face. Crystal Man, though he had no tear ducts, was wiping his eyes. Mega Man's eyes were wide open. The stunned robot stared at the center of the stage, where Bass and Zero stood. The two of them could not be more uncomfortable if they were stuck in Iron Maidens with instant death spikes at every angle. Zero awkwardly rubbed his arm, and an irked Bass stepped several feet away. As they met the author's gaze, both Wily-bots grimaced and turned away, heading as fast as they could to their seats.

"Uh..." Moody stared at them. "Okay. So...what happened?"

"They were singing." Roll said softly. "It was so right that we let them go last."

"It wasn't that good..." Zero muttered.

"Are you kidding?" X exclaimed. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard! It was like...like angels singing!"

"And those high notes!" Crystal Bot gasped. "They were unbelievable! I already knew Forte-kun was a good singer, but when he's singing with Zero...it's just...it's just...wow! It's better than explosions!"

"I'm sorry, Crystal Bot." Mega Man turned to her. "I can't believe I didn't believe you when you said Bass could sing!"

"I...I didn't believe it either." Proto Man lifted his head, daring to look up at the two singers. "Bass...sings? And Zero! Well...well...I don't know what to think!"

"I'm never singing again." Bass glared at each robot in their turn. "You will all now delete that from your memory databases."

"But why?" Crystal Bot sighed with delight. "I want to hear the song over and over again!"

Zero reluctantly turned to the author. "Moody, would you be nice for once and delete this contest from our memories?"

"'Fraid not." Moody shrugged. "You guys were so insistent on the contest, so this is what you get. On the plus side, none of you guys will remember this once Bonus Features is through."

"Excellent. I'll take it" Zero settled back into his chair with a glad but tired sigh.

"Well, I've been taking notes during all of your peformances." Crystal Man sat up as he spoke. "I don't believe there is any doubt as to which group wins first place."

Zero turned away from the others and determinedly stared offstage. Bass wrinkled his nose and stared at his lap.

"So I suppose the real contest is for second place." Crystal Man continued. "That would have to go to The Digital Sweethearts."

"Yay!" Crystal Bot clapped her hands. "We did really good!"

"Aw, I don't think I did so well." Roll wanted to blush. "It was Splash Woman that did all the hard parts."

"I am talented, what can I say?" Splash eyed the two Wily brothers a little as she spoke, but quickly caught herself and put her face in a more mannerable position. "I suppose I get lots of practice, being out in the ocean on duty."

"Or maybe Crystal Man is rigging the score for his daughter." X teased.

And there went Splash Woman's mannerable expression, and she instantly wished she had her trident with her. "You...you...how dare you insult me like that! I'm through with you!"

With a huff, Splash Woman promptly donned her top hat and directed her cart offstage. She was gone so quick that X didn't have a chance to apologize. Crystal Man rolled his eyes and went on. "In any case, third place goes to the drunken and yet rather lively performance of Sigma and Signas: Friends in Low Places."

"Boo!" Signas called out, smacking his beer against the bar's countertop. "Cheat! I demand a recount!"

And with a mighty burp, Signas slumped and fell off his stool, landing in a heap on the other side of the counter and invisible to those watching the projector screen. Signas roared with laughter, taking a swig from his own beer before speaking.

"Ha! So I didn't win your pathetic singing war." Sigma scoffed. "I am still the might Sigma, the one that haunts your nightmares and fills you full of fear!"

"Um, actually Sigma," Moody said. "In my revised universe, you don't become a Maverick. You lead the life of a do-gooder, stopping Mavericks and being a servant of humans for your entire existence."

"WHAT?" Sigma smashed his beer on the bar in an explosion of glass and foam. "That is _it_! I have had it with you, GrimMoody, and now I'm finally going to make you suffer, then take your place as author, and write the story that _I_ want to read! I'm-"

"-Going to get out of my bar!" A female voice not in view of the projector called out. "You've been smashing up my bar all week, and now your brother threw up on the floor! Get out of here!"

"How dare you speak to the great Sigma this way, foul brewery wench?" the king of Mavericks thundered. "I demand...whoa!"

As Sigma talked, he'd tried to get over to the bartender, only to slip in a puddle of beer.

"I demand," Sigma slurred. "That you stop flipping the room."

"Yeesh. Auto, cut off the projector signal." Grimm stared with distaste at the scene. "I think we've had enough of that."

Crystal Man nodded with approval as the projector went blank. "We perhaps shouldn't have included them in the contest. In any case, fourth place goes to Axl and Proto Man for their adequate rendition of Smoke on the Water."

"Sorry, Proto Man." Axl said sheepishly. "I play guitar way better than I sing."

"Heh, I'm not very good either." Blues chuckled. "Now if only we weren't beaten by the drunks."

"And that leaves," Crystal Man said. "At fifth place, X and Mega Man."

"More like one hundredth place." Bass scoffed.

Roll opened her mouth as if to protest Bass' remark, but she found herself unable to bring forth any logic. She turned apologetically to her brother.

"Sorry Rock, but...maybe you could never sing with X again?"

"Wait, what?" Rock startled. "Come on, we weren't that bad."

"Yeah, I think it was my best performance yet!" X exhuberantly lifted a fist in the air. "Don't you think so, Zero?"

If possible, Zero looked even more embarrassed than he had before. "Um, not exactly. You...could definitely improve. Maybe you could try not singing jpop songs meant for girlish voices."

"Hear that, Rock?" X said. "That means we have to practice!"

"NO!" Zero exclaimed. "That's definitely not what I meant!"

"Well, if we can't sing Poi Poi Peace," Rock thought for a moment. "Why don't we sing Rising Sun by TVXQ?"

"I don't think I know that song, but the band sounds kind of familiar." X said. "Is that Japanese?"

"No, Korean. I heard Crystal Bot listening to it one day." Rock smiled in her direction. "And I really like it! Here, I'll sing you a little bit and maybe you'll remember hearing it!"

"Quick!" A very frightened Crystal Bot addressed the author. "Ask a question, do a deleted scene, or anything you can think of to stop him!"

"Actually, I've got nothing." GrimMoody answered. "No questions, scenes, or guests. It's done. I'm all out. And that means it's time to say thank you to our reviewers!"

"First of all," GrimMoody turned to face the camera, smiling galantly. "I'd like to say a friggin' huge thank you to ManOnThe3up, as you have given my favorite review of all the stories on Wily Ga, and really made my day - no, my three years. Knowing that someone appreciates what I do enough to recommend me to two of the most popular gamer youtubers really means a lot to me. So, as a reward, here you go, a reviewer Maverick!"

**ManOnThe3Up  
=====Tellurian Triptych  
"Should you decide to enter, you will never return."**

**Tellurian is a crafty Maverick, and he lives in an ancient masoleum where he likes to keep the victims of the Mavericks. He's very speedy, well armored, and bears a trident. His clothes are a Middle Ages-ish set of armor, all carved about with dark sybols and burnished not to shine, though over this he wears a threadbare cloak of black. It's highly recommended that the player defeat other robot masters first, as it's very difficult to fight him without his weakness. The player that gets him is the Triptych Trident, which pierces all enemies and attaches to walls so that the player can shoot it out and use it as a platform to reach higher areas.**

"I got the idea for this Maverick by looking up synonyms for 'man'." Moody said. "And one of the really archaic names for Earth is Tellus, so Tellurian. Triptych means a collection of three. Or something fancypants like that. Alright. Now you guys go."

"Well, I'd definitely like to thank AccessBlade for supporting me." Roll said. "Thanks also to Tanokki, and Arktemis."

"Thanks to Anmynous for giving Moody all the crap she deserves." Bass grinned. "Puppet the 13th too."

"Thanks, Haruna Rei, for enjoying my cute side story." Crystal Bot giggled. "And thanks to Queen Sunstar and MungoJerry for being my fans!"

"I suppose I should thank RedAxl for being my fan." Proto Man winced. "But I'd prefer to have a fan who can spell and use punctuation."

"I'll say thanks to Kaelenmitharos. It's nice to know that someone thinks I was underused too." Mega Man winked.

"Thanks to Teribane, for writing stories I actually read." Zero said.

"Thanks to FanFicGuy for not being here when I arrived." X shook his head. "My Little Pony? Seriously?"

"Stop hatin', X." GrimMoody said. "And finally, thanks to Goddra2 for being here for my whole series, and reading it all. I swear, making Ping Duplicitous was a lot of fun."

"You guys thanked everybody already..." Axl complained. "Oh, wait, Lalalei! Thanks for reading! You too, kazikamikaze24! That's everyone!"

"So..." Roll said. "Is this really it? It's all over?"

"I guess so..." Moody said. "That's all I've got."

"But it just can't end so abruptly." Mega Man protested. "It's been five stories and three years since all of this began. It...it just doesn't seem right."

There was silence for a moment. Everyone looked at each other, searching everyone for an answer that nobody seemed to have. GrimMoody herself shrugged.

"Well, I guess I'll just end it here." she said, then solemnly turned to the camera. "Well, thanks for reading-"

"Wait!" Mega Man jumped out of his chair, and all eyes focused on him. "We're all just going to forget this when it's all over because it's outside of our time, correct?"

"Yeah." the author nodded. "So?"

"So then let's have a techno party!" Rock exclaimed. "We can party for hours and hours, but it'll be like no time at all! Let's celebrate the end of these dumb stories and the final downfall of Wily's schemes forever! Hit it, Auto!"

The green repair-bot must have also been in control of the lights, as the very instant Rock called out his name, Auto had the place jammin'. Colored lights shone down at every angle, and a huge disco ball sent flocks of sparkle on all the walls. A techno song, I've Set My Sights on You, blasted on the sound systems. At once all chairs were shoved back, and the robots at once began to boogie down. Mega Man and X were the first on the floor, and thankfully their dancing was far better than their singing. In fact it was so good, that Bass, by no means free of his competitive nature, at once got on the dance floor to establish his rug cutting superiority. Zero laughed, and he dragged the more recitent Proto Man to the dance floor. He didn't have to drag Crystal Bot, who danced with her dad like an over-sugared six year old. GrimMoody tried to dance, but thankfully everyone was having to much fun to pay her any mind.

In the midst of the technicolor techno, Signas and Sigma danced their way in, somehow sobered up and dancing as well as anybody, Skull Man entered too, but not his usual self - he'd sprayed himself with glow-in-the-dark paint, his ribs glowing in neon pinks and greens. Top Man, not to be outdone, skated on stage, deftly circling the skaters. He finished his loop directly in front of Roll.

"Would you like this dance?" Top Man pronounced grandly.

"I sure would!" Roll giggled, putting her hand in his.

And so the group partied for hours and hours, no one was really sure how long. Not even GrimMoody. Long before the party ended, the author spun out and winked at the camera.

"So long, y'all!" she announced. "This is the end of the Okkusenman quintology, and I hope you enjoyed this process as much as I have! As for me, it's back to the regular fiction! I plan on making a series of short stories to sell online as well as doing a series of robot master one-shots, but more on that later! Bye, y'all!"

The End. And this time I mean it.

-t-

Youtube:

Puttin' on the Ritz - /watch?v=3hmFeKxM0fE

Friends in Low Places - /watch?v=p29wEZSwUVM

Smoke on the Water - /watch?v=b-MG_35Gk7g

Poi Poi Peace (or Bai Bai Peace) - /watch?v=3hmFeKxM0fE

Rising Sun - /watch?v=2ZxK60hbX-s

I've Set My Sights on You - /watch?v=zM_7BwFvCpg


End file.
